Silent
by toledo girl
Summary: Just because you can't talk, doesn't mean that you have nothing to say. Takes place after Mixed Blessings.
1. Silent

Elisabeth Rose House. That was what was written on the front of her journal. She was twelve years old, and still had yet to say her first word. Just because she was quiet though, didn't mean that she had nothing to say.

Right now, she sat in the room that she shared with Jessica. It was actually Gabrielle's bedroom. There was a bunk bed in there, Elisabeth got the bottom, along with a dresser and a desk.

Her journal was open in front of her as she wrote while waiting for Jessica to finish getting ready for bed.

_Starting middle school soon. Still not excited about it. Never will be. Am excited for next weekend though, it's Jason's second birthday. He's still cute. Gabi and Andy brought him over today. It's still weird to me though, having someone call my mom and dad grandma and grandpa, or as he says it, gammy and ganpa. _

_Right now, daddy and I think that there's something else going on with Gabi though. She seemed, happier than usual. Most times if she has a secret, she'll tell me because she knows I won't tell anyone else, bus this time she hasn't told me anything. Maybe another baby? Daddy seems to think so, but he still hasn't mentioned anything to mom yet. _

_Anyways, onto another secret. Rachel's got a secret boyfriend. She told him she was thirteen, but she's twelve until December. Funny how the three of us are the same age for a few months there. Back to her boyfriend though, Gabi knows about it and she's the one helping her get ready for her date Friday night. She didn't tell me about it, I heard her phone conversation. That and the fact that she has been obsessing over how she looks every time she goes outside this house. It's the boy living across the street. _

_Tommy got in trouble today. Daddy caught him trying to put glue in the make up that Rachel stole from mom. Rachel's in trouble too. I think she kind of deserved it, she's a bit too perfect at times. Tommy though, my poor, stupid, little brother. He's ten and he still doesn't know how to do this stuff yet. I have a lot more to teach him. I was actually the one who helped him find a worm and sneak it into this one girl's lunch, Natasha, I think. Doesn't matter, she's a bitch to him and she deserved it. _

Setting the pen down, she looked up at herself in the mirror. When it came to her looks, she was basically a carbon copy of her mother. The way she acted though, the way she watched and observed things, she was her father's daughter.

"Hey kid."

Elisabeth looked over and saw House standing in the doorway. She raised her eyebrows to him as she waited for him to talk. He pulled out his wallet and grabbed a five. "Five bucks she announces she's pregnant on Saturday," he offered.

Elisabeth smiled and walked over to her dresser and grabbed a small box that she had been saving her money in and pulled out a five. She held it up to show him and then set it down on top of the box.

"You really don't think she will?" House asked her.

Elisabeth shook her head. She used sign language to tell him that she thought if Gabrielle was pregnant, she would wait until a random time to tell everyone. A time that wasn't focused on some one else.

"As long as you think you have a chance," House remarked, putting his wallet away.

"I saw that," Cuddy informed him as she walked passed.

"Saw what?" he questioned.

Cuddy stopped and stood beside him. "Look, I knew when you were betting with Gabi, and I let it go because she was older. Now you're on to a twelve year old Greg, I can't allow that," she warned.

"Come on, I'm teaching her a valuable lesson. This teaches her logic, common sense, and to never give an answer unless you really believe that you're right. This way she doesn't grow up to be an idiot," he explained. "You don't want idiot children do you?"

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Gambling isn't the answer. Besides, it's probably not even something worth betting over," she argued. Instead of waiting for House to answer, she looked over to Elisabeth, who shrugged and nodded. She rolled her eyes. She then walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Come here Ellie," she instructed.

Elisabeth walked over and sat down next to her mother.

"This isn't about the gambling," Cuddy stated. "But this is about the doctor's appointment that you had a couple days ago," she said.

Elisabeth looked from Cuddy over to House, who was leaving the room. That wasn't a good sign. She nervously looked back to Cuddy.

"They put you on the list to get a new lung," she explained. "Now, I don't want you to be scared about that. Really, it's a good thing. You'll be able to breathe a lot better, and you won't have to go get your lungs cleaned as often." She comfortingly grabbed her daughter's shoulder. "Now, it could be quite a while before you get one, but when you do, you think you can be brave?" she implored.

Elisabeth just forced a smiled and hugged her. Really, she was terrified. She knew what she had, she wasn't supposed to have. It was a rare disease, and that scared her alone. PAP. She couldn't always remember what it stood for, but it didn't really matter. Either way she knew that according to statistics, she wasn't supposed to even be alive now. She was though. That did ease her thoughts a little, but knowing that she needed a transplant still scared her.

"What's going on?" Jessica questioned as she entered the room.

Cuddy pulled back from Elisabeth. "Just saying good night," she answered and then stood up.

Elisabeth could see that Jessica knew better than that, but Cuddy never did tell the others everything that was going on with her. Gabrielle knew everything that was going on, but maybe because she was old enough to understand.

"Good night mom," Jessica said and then climbed up to her bed.

Cuddy then left the room and closed the door behind her. Elisabeth sat just got into bed. She was expecting Jessica to ask her what had just happened, but she didn't. When a few moments passed, Elisabeth went and turned off the light to go to sleep.


	2. Family

Chapter 1: Family

Rachel stood in the bathroom as she got ready to leave and head over to Gabrielle's house. She had to make sure that her shoulder length soft brown hair was perfect. She wanted badly to start using make up, but she didn't need it. Naturally rosy cheeks along with full, long eye lashes. Of course though, there were her green eyes. She needed eye shadow to bring them out. Cuddy however, spent about twenty minutes, convincing her to just wear a green shirt.

It wasn't so much that she wanted to look perfect at Jason's party, she just needed to make sure that Gerald noticed her. He lived across the street from them, so she felt the need to be perfect every time that she left the house. Even just going to get the mail was a long process for her.

"Mom!" she called out.

Cuddy was standing in her bedroom trying to get ready and rolled her eyes. She was just with her ten minutes ago helping her to get ready. These hour long sessions in front of the mirror were going to have to end soon. "What is it?" she responded.

"Can you come here?" Rachel asked.

Cuddy put down her make up and headed over to the bathroom down the hall. "What is it?" she questioned. She saw Rachel questionably looking over her self in the mirror.

"I think I need a training bra," she informed her.

"You're not gonna stuff it are you?" Cuddy asked.

Rachel looked up to her with interest. "What?" she asked, her sparked interest visible.

Cuddy could see what she did and help up her hand. "Never mind," she replied. "Now, I talked to you about getting one last week, and you absolutely refused. Why now?" she implored.

Rachel shrugged. "I think I would look neater with one," she answered.

Cuddy sighed. "Alright, how about this? I'll take you shopping tomorrow for one. Okay?" she offered. In all honesty, she figured that Rachel would change her mind again within a few hours.

"Okay," Rachel responded with a smile and then went back to playing with her hair in the mirror.

Cuddy just smiled as she watched her. She was definitely growing up on her. "Try and hurry up. Your dad is downstairs waiting with Tommy and I don't think you've given Jessie or Ellie a chance to get ready yet," she stated.

"All right," Rachel said and then stood back and checked herself. "Done," she announced and then left the room and headed downstairs.

Over in Jessica and Elisabeth's room, Elisabeth sat at the desk as she read a book while Jessica looked through the closet. "I don't know what to wear," she stated.

Elisabeth turned and looked over to her. She herself did not really care how she dressed. She just wore jeans with a Pink Floyd t-shirt that Gabrielle had given her with her hair halfway pulled back and tied with a blue ribbon. She knew though that Jessica was slightly competing with Rachel.

Jessica was, not the misfit of the family, but Elisabeth could see that she was trying to find her place. Gabrielle was the oldest, and on her own, and she was very close with both parents, and Valedictorian of her graduating class. Rachel was the beauty queen, there was no doubting that. She did pretty good in school, never got lower than a B+, but she was definitely mommy's little girl. Elisabeth was daddy's little girl, straight A student and constantly got attention for anything she did. Then Tommy was the son, him and House got along very well.

The family was slightly divided. It wasn't that certain people didn't get along, it was just that Tommy and Elisabeth were more like House and Rachel spent more time with Cuddy. Jessica would go back and forth.

"Don't look at me like that," Jessica responded. She could tell that Elisabeth thought she was being ridiculous. "I just want to look nice, that's all."

Elisabeth raised her eyebrow to her and then grabbed a piece of paper out of a notebook and started writing. Jessica stood there and watched her, waiting for her to finish.

Jessica knew sign language. The notes though, were saved for when Elisabeth felt that she had too much to say to have to sit there and sign it all out. This would be quicker.

Elisabeth put the pen down and go up to hand the note to Jessica. "Thanks," Jessica replied and then read over the note.

_This little game is stupid. I suggest that you find something else. Be yourself. You're pretty, but you're not completely obsessed with yourself to the point where you find it necessary to stare at yourself for hours at a time. I know. I've seen you get bored of looking at yourself in a mirror after a minute. Besides, she's doing this all for Gerald, across the street, not to look better than you. _

Jessica looked up from the note. "Fine, what do you suggest?" she implored.

Elisabeth held her finger up, motioning for her to wait a minute and then went and got another piece of paper and started writing. This one was a bit quicker. She smiled as she got up and handed the note over to Jessica.

"Singing, writing, softball, filming, directing, track, lawyer," she read out loud and then looked up, confused. "Lawyer?" she asked.

Elisabeth shrugged. She then explained to her that she was stubborn and kind of liked to argue.

Jessica nodded and then looked over the list again. "I can't sing that well. You seem to be the one writing the most here. Softball is only fun sometimes. I don't have my own camera to play with. I guess that leaves me with track," she informed her as she looked up. "Looks like I have a pretty good chance with that," she stated.

Elisabeth nodded and then stated that it was physically impossible for her to run and that Rachel would be afraid of ruining her hair. That just left her and Tommy.

"How about we get back to this tonight?" Jessica offered.

Elisabeth nodded.

Downstairs, House sat in the chair and watched as Tommy ran circles around the table with his toy airplane. His eyes were following the boy every time he passed him. It amazed him that the kid hadn't gotten dizzy yet, he was starting to get dizzy just from watching him. "You ever consider a sedative?" House questioned.

Tommy froze and curiously looked to him. "No," he cautiously answered. "Have you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

House nodded with a slight smirk. He then sighed as he looked over towards the stairs. "A second birthday with just the family and they act like we're about to be presented to the king," he remarked. He was getting tired of always having to wait on everyone.

Just as he was about to call up to everyone, Elisabeth came down the stairs and joined them in the living room.

"Are they almost done up there?" Tommy questioned.

Elisabeth shook her head. She was starting to get annoyed too. She then eagerly offered to go up and try to rush everyone.

"No, I don't want a car full of bitchy girls complaining that they didn't have time to get their hair just right," House replied. They had a forty five minute drive ahead of them, the last thing he needed was everyone fighting.

"Was your mom almost done getting ready?" he asked. He knew that Cuddy cared about her looks, but he knew that she was always able to get ready quickly. It was weird that she was taking so long.

Elisabeth explained to him that she had to keep leaving to go help Rachel.

House just sat back. He hated the idea that Rachel was so obsessed with her looks. He knew what that meant. She was going to be the one with all the boys. He was going to have to constantly be watching her like a hawk. "You still got the money?" he implored.

Elisabeth smiled to him and nodded. She then motioned to him, asking if he still had his.

"Nope, lost all of my savings to a hooker yesterday. I was fine with it, but your mother seemed to be a little miffed," he responded.

"What's a hooker?" Tommy questioned.

Elisabeth started laughing.

"Go get a dictionary and look up the word prostitute. They mean the same thing," he instructed.

"Okay," Tommy responded. He put the plane down and rushed up the stairs to his room.

Cuddy was on her way down as Tommy ran upstairs. "He forget something?" she questioned.

"Yeah, let's go with that," House replied.

Cuddy just accepted the answer as she went and sat down next to Elisabeth. "How are you feeling today?" she questioned. It was something that she asked her every day, just to make sure.

Elisabeth smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She wasn't feeling all that bad, a little tired, but nothing major. Even if she was feeling sick though, she did not think that she would actually tell her. It was easy to scare Cuddy, and she didn't want to be the one to do it. Now, if she were suffocating or hacking up blood, yes, she would tell her. But minor things that could possibly give her a panic attack for no reason? No.

Rachel came walking down the stairs. She seemed to be confused as she entered the living room. "Dad? I think you should go talk to Tommy. He's up there upset because you spent all of your money on sex," she informed him.

Elisabeth started cracking up on the couch as Cuddy glared over to House.

"All right," House sighed as he stood up. "I guess I'll go set him straight while the other princess gets ready," he said.

Cuddy just rolled her eyes. She could imagine what he had told him. Even though she was a little concerned with what her children were hearing, she trusted House. There was an honesty to him that she was sure they would appreciate some day. She didn't appreciate it at moments like this, but at certain times she did.

**Okay, so earlier I said that this story was just going to be a one shot, but I had a few people request it to be longer. My sister also offered to sit down and help me write this. She actually deserves a lot of credit for this chapter. I hope that you enjoy it and please let me know what you think. **

**I would also like to say congratulations to one of my best friends Kelly. She just found out that she is the Valedictorian of the class of 2012. **


	3. In the Past

Chapter 2: In the Past

House and Andy stood outside on the front lawn as Tommy tried to show Jason how to throw his new football.

"Hey Tommy!" House called over as he watched Tommy try to explain to the toddler what he was doing. "Why don't you try learning how to throw before teaching someone else?" he asked.

Tommy just stuck his tongue out at House and continued on with what he was doing. They could tell that he was getting a little annoyed though, with the fact that Jason kept looking away and playing with the grass in front of him by tearing it out and throwing that at Tommy.

"You think you should really keep insulting him like that?" Andy questioned. He still felt a bit uncomfortable around House, but it was getting better.

House briefly glanced to Andy and then looked back to Tommy. "You're right, the kid looks completely devastated," he remarked. After a brief moment of getting no reaction from Andy, he turned to him and started to explain. "See, unlike you, the ten year old over there knows when not to take everything personal. Maybe you should take some lessons from him."

Andy rolled his eyes. He couldn't say too much. Gabrielle was the same way with Jason at times. She would tease him and he would raspberry her. It was a big game.

"I'm just trying to keep him from turning out just like you, that's all," Andy attempted.

House could tell that he was nervous while he was making the comment and laughed at him. "And what does my daughter see in you?" he implored.

Andy sighed. "You know that on our wedding day, I honestly thought that you weren't going to let her go once you finished walking her down the isle?" he asked.

"Gabi would've killed me if I didn't," House replied.

Andy stood there and watched the two boys for a moment as they both started throwing grass at each other. "You really hate me that much sir?" he seriously questioned.

House just looked over to him. Honestly? He didn't care for him. While Gabrielle was younger they were constantly breaking up and getting back together. He had seen this man break his daughter's heart before and he hated him for hurting her. "Well," House breathed out. "You do take good care of her, and she is happy," he started and then shrugged. "So I guess I don't completely hate you."

Andy nodded. "Good to know sir," he responded.

"But, if you do hurt her, I'll just have to kill you," House casually stated.

"I'll remember that," Andy replied.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Elisabeth sat in the living room with everyone else as she watched out the window. She wanted to go out there and join them, but she knew that Gabrielle wanted to leave them to talk to each other. It wasn't often that House and Andy would go off by themselves, so when they did, she wanted it to last a little while.

"I think they might be doing okay out there," Rachel stated. With the seat she was in, she could see the window.

"What do you think Ellie? See any blood?" Gabrielle questioned.

Elisabeth turned around to Gabrielle and smirked. She took her hand and made a gun and pretended to shoot it then changed her position again to be the other person and pretended to get shot and then fall over, holding onto her chest.

"That's what I thought," Gabrielle responded.

"Why doesn't he like Andy?" Jessica asked.

Gabrielle slightly laughed. "Well, when I was in high school and then right after, we had this relationship where we would date for a while and then break up, then get back together. One of the times, I caught him cheating on me with one of his ex-girlfriends and then broke up with me before I had a chance to say anything about it," she explained.

Cuddy looked over to Gabrielle and offered a small smile. "You can see why he was unsure of you two getting married can't you?" she implored. She too was mad at Andy after that whole thing. Yes, it was eight years ago, and he had changed a lot, but it was still the same man. And he was still the one that caused Gabrielle to lock herself in her room for a couple of nights.

Gabrielle nodded. "Yes, and I would be worried if he wasn't. I mean, I didn't expect us to get back together again after that either, but it happened. After Missy dumped him again, he came back to me as friend and then we ended up dating again somehow. After a year of dating he popped the question and then a year after that, well, we got married. Three years now, and I haven't suspected him of doing anything even close to cheating," she said.

"I think I slightly remember that," Rachel stated. "Was that that night you came in yelling about him being a bastard and that you hoped he died or something like that?" she asked.

Gabrielle laughed. "Yeah. A lot went down from the time I turned eighteen up until twenty five," she mentioned and then looked over to Cuddy. "Andy and I met up with everyone down in Ohio. You and daddy got married. I broke up with Andy. Cori and I found out that you can't jump on a trampoline off the roof and into a pool. Got back together with Andy. Graduated valedictorian, and then Tommy was born," she said, thinking back on everything.

She then looked around to both Jessica and Rachel. "Daddy ever use you to teach his team?" she questioned. She knew that he would never even consider Elisabeth, she was a little to fragile to risk it.

They both looked perplexed as they shook their heads. "No," Rachel answered for both of them.

Gabrielle softly smiled and nodded. "I see," she responded. There were a lot of things that House did just with her, and she knew that. She was still the one to go and talk to him when something went wrong. She was still the one who would step up for him when he left. Everyone there in the room knew that House had a problem with Vicodin. That was never a mystery to anyone, even Tommy knew about it. But, she wasn't sure if any of them had seen him at his worse like she had. She was always going to be just a little closer to him than the others.

There was also the fact that Cuddy was always less strict with her. She never knew if it was because she knew that she could handle herself, or if it was out of pity. Both parents encouraged her to go out to the few parties that she had been to since she moved in with them. Now, she was pretty certain that neither of them would let any of the girls go out and do half the things they let her do. Tommy, maybe, but none of the girls.

"I think you were slightly different," Cuddy explained. The more she thought about it though, Gabrielle was the only one who had actually been in the hospital a lot around his team. She knew them more than the others did. She was the one who had been there and helped House find a replacement for Thirteen when she left, and then Taub. House would pick people based on their skills at first, and then she would go through and help him along with a few games to see which one was the most clever, the trickiest. Most of all, she would play with their heads and see who could handle it for the longest amount of time. Now, she was babysitting Chase and Cameron's little girl, Erin, occasionally.

Elisabeth sat there and listened in. Yes, she knew that Gabrielle was the outcast of the group. She saw it each time that she was in the hospital and Gabrielle would be the one to take House into her room to see her. She saw it when Cuddy needed someone and House was off hiding. In a way, she was the leader. When things started getting bad, she stepped in and did anything she could to keep everyone from falling apart.

There was something missing though. She knew that Gabrielle's real mother was dead and that House was her real father. She knew that she came from Ohio and had a half brother named Jake. Other than that, she had no idea what Gabrielle's life was like before moving out here. There were a few scars that she had seen on her, one on her side, a tiny one on the front of her neck and a small one on her shoulder.

The others continued talking while she went and grabbed some paper and a pen. This was something she wanted only Gabrielle to see, that way she had a better chance of getting an answer. After she was done writing, she folded the paper and handed it to Gabrielle on her way back to her seat.

Gabrielle took the paper and read it. Her face fell. "My mom?" she implored, looking up over the paper to Elisabeth.

"What about mom?" Jessica asked.

Gabrielle turned to her. "My mom, she wants to know what she was like," she explained.

Jessica, confused, looked over to Elisabeth. She was about to say something, but Rachel leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Daddy was with someone else before our mom."

Gabrielle laughed. "I'm sorry, I thought all of you knew that she wasn't my biological mom," she stated. She then sighed. "Anyways, my mom. Her name was Maria," she started and then stopped a moment to think. She had to find a way to describe her mother without making her sound bad. Like everyone, she had her good and bad points, but her bad points overshadowed her good. "She was very creative, um, I remember playing dress up with her a lot and baking. She was very honest, and would push me to do the absolute best that I could. She definitely trusted me and she liked to have fun," she informed them.

"Who are we talking about?" Andy asked as the four of them came back inside.

"Wait," Jessica ordered and then stood up and looked over to Tommy. "Does Gabrielle have the same parents as us?" she questioned.

Tommy shook his head. "Nope," he replied.

"How did you know that?" she asked.

"At the wedding, the priest guy up there asked if Gabrielle Zbin took Andrew Richards to be her husband. I asked Rachel after wards and she told me," he explained.

House stood there and looked to Gabrielle with concern. Her past was her sensitive spot and was trying to see how she was handling the line of questions.

Jessica looked over to Rachel. "How did you know?" she implored.

"Before I answer that, you do know that I'm adopted, right?" she asked.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Any idiot could tell that just by the way our birthdays fall."

Rachel laughed. "She talked to me after I found out when I was like six. My mother died not too long after I was born, and her mother had died. We had something in common," she informed her.

Gabrielle nodded as she thought back on the night.

_Gabrielle sat at her desk. Her room was now up in the attic while the three girls got her old bedroom. She was working on a paper for school. _

"_Gabi?" Rachel asked from the doorway. _

_Gabrielle looked over and saw that the little girl had been crying. "Hey kid, why the tears?" she questioned. _

"_You would be sad too if you found out that your parents didn't want you," Rachel informed her. _

_Curious, Gabrielle turned her chair to completely face Rachel. "What do you mean?" she asked. She wasn't about to tell her why she was off with that statement, and how bad it could really be. _

"_Well, my mommy died and then my daddy didn't want me, so he gave me to Greg and Lisa," she explained. _

_Gabrielle slightly laughed at the fact that she had called Cuddy Lisa and House Greg. "I see," she replied. "You know, Lisa's not my actual mommy either. Greg and my mom, Maria, were together for a while. She took me and left Greg and then when she died, Greg and Lisa took me," she informed her. _

"_Yeah?" Rachel questioned, wiping the tears from her face. _

_Gabrielle got up and sat down on her bed. "Come here," she requested as she patted the space next to her. _

_Rachel complied and joined her. She stared up to her, waiting to hear what she was going to say next, even though it wouldn't change what she was thinking. _

"_I don't know if this means anything to you now, but it will later on," she started. "Lisa, she definitely wanted you, more than anything. I know she did. Your real parents were very young and couldn't take care of you as well as she could. Greg and Lisa really, truly love you. And honestly, when it came to my mother, Lisa has done more for me, than she ever did," she explained. _

_Rachel looked to her as she tried to fully understand what she had just told her. "Why do you call her mom?" she implored. _

_Gabrielle smiled. "I don't know," she admitted. "I guess because she is my mom. Your mom isn't just the person who gave birth to you ya know," she said. _

_Rachel raised her eyebrows. "Really?" she asked. _

"_No. A mom is the woman who loves you and takes care of you. In your words, it would be the one who never forgets to check your room for monsters after tucking you in just the right way and then leaves the door cracked open for you," she explained. "And then a dad is basically the same, except for the fact that he's a man of course. And he might be a little bit more protective over you when it comes to boys," she added. _

"_So, they really are my mommy and daddy?" Rachel questioned, seeing if she got the point. _

_Gabrielle nodded in approval. "Pretty smart for a little kid," she commented. _

Gabrielle was brought out of her thought as she heard Jason come into the room.

"Momma! Look! Look!" Jason exclaimed as he ran in the door and over to Gabrielle on the couch.

Gabrielle laughed as she looked down and saw his hand closed, holding something. She looked back to Andy who shrugged and then went back to Jason. "What've you got there?" she questioned, bracing herself.

"Idy!" he announced as he opened his hand, revealing a spider.

Gabrielle just laughed. "Sorry kid, it's not a poisonous one. Want me to take it back outside for you?" she offered, putting her hand out.

Jason let out a heavy sigh of disappointment. "Here," he said, dumping the nearly dead spider into her hand and walking away.

Gabrielle looked over to Cuddy as she got up. "Don't ask," she warned and then headed to the door and tossed the bug outside.

"He just likes things that crawl," Andy remarked as he went ahead and closed the door for Gabrielle after she was back inside.

"Apparently deadly ones," House added.

Gabrielle shrugged. "He doesn't like cute and cuddly," she stated.

"Either that or he's like you and thinks everything is cute," he suggested.

Gabrielle smirked. "Hey, I was a young girl helping along a relationship. A lot of things were cute to me," she defended herself.

Elisabeth was starting to get her own ideas of what was going as she sat back and watched. That was the one advantage to not being able to talk, she wasn't expected to speak, so instead, she could just listen. She could observe. Right within the last few minutes, she had gotten something about everyone in that room.

She saw the look between House and Gabrielle, he knew something about her, something about her relationship with her mother and he knew that she didn't like it. Maybe a mutual feeling? There was definitely some sort of guilt there. He seemed to understand more than anyone else did.

Cuddy was a bit sympathetic too. She knew something. It was common sense that she most likely knew as much as House about what had been going on, but there wasn't the same understanding that she saw with him.

Andy just stood back and stared. He was there with her, so he had to know more than House or Cuddy. He could understand a bit, but he seemed to just want to ignore the entire subject all together. To just change the topic and forget about it.

Rachel didn't know anything, but she was fine with it. Making her feel left out was nearly impossible, she was secure with herself most of the time.

Jessica on the other hand, was somewhat insecure. She couldn't handle not knowing one thing that everyone else did. There was a feeling of entitlement, that she deserved to know what everyone else in the room knew.

Tommy was like her, he watched everything and found the things that Jessica didn't know, to be pretty obvious to spot.


	4. Observations

Chapter 4: Observations

House and Elisabeth headed into the kitchen after returning home while everyone else either went upstairs or out into the living room.

Elisabeth immediately held her hand out, motioning for House to give her the money.

House sighed as he grabbed his wallet out of his pocket. "You just got lucky this time," he remarked as he pulled out the money.

Elisabeth snatched the bills out of his hand and thanked him before stuffing the money into her pocket and leaving.

"Anytime," he responded and then put the wallet back into his pocket. Watching her, he could tell that she had been walking a little slower lately. Like she was more tired. It worried him a little, but he didn't want to say anything.

If anything at all, he wanted to pretend. To allow himself to believe she would be able to grow up like the rest, to live a decent life. The denial was the only thing that had kept him going since she was five.

_House and Cuddy sat in the office of the respiratory specialist that they had been taking Elisabeth to. Both of them knew that this was going to be bad news. That was the only reason anyone was ever called into a private office to talk. _

_Sitting in the chairs before the empty desk as they waited for him to return with the results, Cuddy reached over and grabbed his hand. A simple little motion, but it meant everything to him. It told him how scared she truly was, the fact that she was tightly holding on and wouldn't let go. _

"_Good afternoon," Dr. Hesseman greeted as he closed the door behind him and carried the file over to his desk. _

"_Morning doctor," Cuddy returned the greeting for the both of them. _

_The man opened the file and looked over a few things before removing his glasses and looking up at the two. "The build up is not too bad for now. Have her in for a lavage every six months and she'll be fine," he announced. "However, after a while, those six month periods will turn into five, then four, three, two, one and eventually," he trailed off. _

_House just stared forward. He knew what was going to happen, he was a doctor, he could see it. This though, was the first time that someone had actually told him. The first time that all of his thoughts were confirmed by someone else. _

_He could tell Cuddy was ready to cry, and that seemed to make things worse. As hard as he tried to block it all out, it was still there and it was still going to happen. _

"_How long until then?" Cuddy questioned. Her voice was hoarse from the strain of keeping herself from crying. _

"_Well, she was getting better for a while, but then started going backwards," he stated more to himself. "My guess is that she'll live to be about ten. Once it gets down to every two months, she'll start declining quickly," he explained. _

House just looked down and sighed. Nothing he could do would ever help her. Never.

O o o o o o o o

Elisabeth went up the stairs to go to her room, but stopped at the top of the staircase. She was lightheaded and had to catch her breath. This wasn't something brand new to her, but it had only been a few weeks since her last appointment to get her lungs cleaned out.

Cautiously, she walked to her bed room and went in and sat down on the bed. She had to tell one of her parents, but she couldn't. She couldn't let them know. It wasn't like either one of them could actually do anything anyways.

Now she knew why she was put on the list to get a new lung. That was the only solution left.

O o o o o o o o o

Rachel nervously walked down the stairs from her room to the hallway and stepped into the doorway to her parent's room. "Mom?" she called.

Cuddy, who was putting some of her jewelry away, looked up to her and closed the box. "Yes?" she asked, sensing that she had something that she wanted to discuss.

Rachel sheepishly looked to her while she started to play with her hair. "Can I talk to you?" she requested.

Cuddy smiled to her. "Sure," she replied and then went and sat down on the edge of the bed. "Come here," she stated.

Rachel went and sat down by her. "I um" she started and then took a moment to gather her thoughts. Looking straight into her mother's face, she finally said what she needed to say. "I like this boy and I really want to hang out with him," she blurted out.

Cuddy suppressed her urge to laugh. She could tell that she thought she was going to get in trouble. "What's his name?" she questioned.

Rachel relaxed a little and smiled. "Gerald," she answered. "Gerald Berielli."

Cuddy just nodded. She had known it from the day that Rachel had begun dressing up just to step outside. She could see her smile to him every time he was outside. There was no news there. "Do you think he likes you?" she questioned, although, she was pretty sure that he did.

Rachel sat there and thought about it for a moment. Yes, he did. He was the one who came up to her and asked her about Friday night. They were going out to a movie. Gabrielle was going to be the one to come and get her and take her out to get ready. They were going to stop and get dinner and then she was going to do her make up and hair and then she would take her to meet with him at the theater. But she couldn't tell her mom that. "Maybe," she answered.

Cuddy noted the hesitance and nodded with a smirk. She knew. It wasn't a huge secret. Besides, she had seen them outside talking before, and then the phone calls. They had probably already hung out before. She knew that House already hated him. "Listen, I don't think you two would be hanging out if he didn't like you," Cuddy stated.

Rachel's eyes widened. She was completely caught off guard. "What?" she asked.

Cuddy laughed. "You really didn't think that I knew?" she questioned.

"What did Gabi tell you?" she implored, trying to find out just how much she knew.

"Gabi knew about this before I did?" Cuddy asked. She then folded her arms and thought for a moment. It didn't surprise her that Gabrielle knew, most girls would tell their sisters everything before they told their mom something. But the fact that she brought her up so quickly made her wonder. "Is that why she's coming over here on Friday?" she asked.

Rachel knew that it was too late to try and lie again. There was no use. "Yes," she sighed out in defeat. "She's helping me get ready and then taking us to the movies," she confessed.

Cuddy just nodded. She was disappointed in the fact that she had lied to her, but at least she did come to talk to her before she actually did anything. "All right, how about this, you can go out with him," she started. Rachel's eyes lightened up as she excitedly looked up to her. "If!" Cuddy emphasized. "If, you tell me exactly where you're going, when you're going, and you're back here by nine. Later if you have either Gabrielle or I with you," she explained.

"What if daddy takes us?" she questioned.

Cuddy just laughed. "Seven thirty."

"I don't even think we would last that long," Rachel replied. She then got up and started heading for the door. "Thank you mommy," she said right before she left.

"Sure," Cuddy responded. Going back to her dresser, she sighed. "And before you know it, she'll be asking for a cell phone, car, and no curfew," she quietly stated to herself.


	5. That Time

Chapter 4: That Time

It was the third day of school. Tommy was in the fifth grade now. He and his friend Charlie sat next to each other in class as the teacher passed out a worksheet for everyone to work on. "Ms. Clark?" he called out.

Ms. Clark, a young, brand new teacher there, stopped and sighed. "Yes Tommy?" she questioned as patiently as she could and then turned to face him.

"Are we allowed to help each other on this?" he implored.

"No, you are to do this on your own," she answered.

Tommy sighed. "All right," he started. "Here's the thing."

Ms. Clark's shoulders dropped. "Here we go," she muttered to herself. The same thing happened yesterday and the day before.

"See, out in the real world, people are allowed to work together. My mom requires my dad to work with other people. And see, it's really more fair that way because everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. In reality, you are actually degrading those of us who can not perform as well with sentence structures as those who can and belittle us with a low grade, completely ignoring the fact that we might actually be amazing at something else," Tommy explained.

Charlie just looked over to him and then to the teacher and nodded. "What he said. I'm tired of getting grades that don't suite me," he stated.

Ms. Clark hung her head in defeat. "Look," she said as she lifted her head. "I am giving this to you so that you can work on your sentence structures and won't need other people to help you with them for the rest of your life," she responded.

"But then you are ripping those who are naturally good at this of their individual talents and telling them that they are no better than everyone else at what they do! You might as well teach everyone to play the piano and tell Beethoven that we don't need his music anymore because everyone can do the same thing that he did now. Why can't you just let Holly be proud of herself for being one of the only people in here to be able to this and then just let me be proud of the fact that I can figure out percentages in my head? You are taking away what makes us stick from each other! You're taking away our identity!" Tommy argued.

Charlie stood up and started clapping. Slowly, the others in the class stood up and joined him.

Ms. Clark just nodded. "This is going to be a long year isn't it?" she questioned.

O o o o o o o o o o o

House casually threw open the door to Cuddy's office and limped in. "All right," he started.

"No," Cuddy responded before he could even tell her what he wanted. She was busy signing a few forms and didn't want to be interrupted.

"I need to get my nineteen year old patient drunk," he announced, ignoring her answer.

Cuddy slowly glared up to him. Quickly though, her expression softened. "You know what, show me how smart you. Find three other tests that you can do and present them to me. Then if you can prove that getting them drunk is the best, you can do it," she offered.

"You are bargaining with a patient's life," he informed her.

"And so are you, by standing here and doing nothing," she responded.

House sat down in the chair. "You're no fun today," he pouted.

"I'm your boss, not your entertainer," she replied.

"Funny, you say boss rather than wife. Does that mean someone needs more control in bed?" he asked, trying to get her more worked up.

Cuddy smirked as she looked up to him. "A gimp can only manage so much in bed before the other person has to step up," she stated.

"Now that was just mean," he replied. He sat there and watched her as she shrugged and went back to her papers. There was something bothering her, and he was pretty sure that he knew what it was. "Elisabeth?" he questioned.

"What?" Cuddy questioned.

"You see all the records of the people that come in and out of this place. You see the people that get the lung transplants. The people that get to go before our daughter. You want to do something to get her higher up on the list, but you can't," he explained to her.

Cuddy set her pen down and looked up to him. This was something that she had been preparing herself for since Elisabeth was born. She knew that something was wrong when she wasn't breathing right away and then when her and House got the call to come to the hospital.

A part of her had to believe that she was going to be fine though. There was still this glimmer of optimism that remained with her. "She's made it this far," she stated.

"Right," he agreed. Really, he knew that this was all just temporary. Not that everyone else's life was permanent, but her existence was destined to be a short one from the start.

Now, he was just wondering if she had been seeing the same things that he had. Things were going downhill just as the doctor had told them when she was little, and there was nothing that they could actually do about it. "And half of her life so far has been spent scaring us," he mentioned.

Cuddy nodded. As much as she loved Elisabeth, she was convinced that the sole purpose of her existence was to give her a heart attack. "Especially when we found out why she wasn't talking," Cuddy responded. "As soon as they found the cyst on her vocal cords, I was pretty sure that she had cancer."

House looked down and started playing with the handle of his cane. "It wasn't though," he replied. "All they did was remove it and it was over with," he explained.

Cuddy looked up to him for a moment. "Doesn't it bother you that she'll never talk?" she implored.

House looked up and shook his head. "Of course not. This way she can't be a mouthy teenager and argue with every little thing I say," he remarked. "You?" he asked. There had to be a reason that she thought to ask him in the first place.

"I think her life would be a tiny bit easier if she could," Cuddy admitted.

O o o o o o o

House and Cuddy got home just in time for dinner that night.

"Hey mom," Rachel said from the couch as the two walked in.

Cuddy smiled over to her. "You're in a good mood tonight," she noted.

"Too happy," House said. "I'd keep an eye on her if I were you," he mentioned to Cuddy and then went into the kitchen.

Rachel just laughed and then got up and headed over to Cuddy. "You'll never guess who sits next to me in my homeroom," she announced.

Cuddy just laughed as she put her jacket in the closet. "Gerald?" she asked.

Rachel nodded as she smiled with excitement. "Isn't it great?" she questioned.

"We'll see how great it is after the grades come in," Cuddy responded. Even though she liked for Rachel to be happy, this was not something that she really thought was that great. The last thing that she needed was a distraction at school.

"Don't worry," Rachel said.

"All right," Cuddy responded, wishing it were that easy.

Elisabeth started down the stairs with a note in her hand. Upset, she handed the folded note to Cuddy and then requested Rachel to leave.

"Okay," Rachel replied. "I'll go see what daddy's doing," she stated and then left.

Cuddy took the note and unfolded it. "Dear Ellie," she started reading out loud.

Elisabeth quickly stopped her and then took Cuddy's arm and lead her over to the couch.

"This note's a secret?" Cuddy quietly asked.

Elisabeth nodded and then pointed upstairs.

"It has to do with Jessica?" Cuddy questioned, not quite getting what was going on yet. Elisabeth just motioned for her to read the note.

Cuddy sat there and read it.

_Dear Ellie,_

_Please come to the class picnic with me this weekend. I think you are really pretty and even though you don't talk, I know you're smart. Let me know as soon as you can. _

_Donnie_

Cuddy smiled. She was really happy that Elisabeth got noticed. When she was younger some of the other kids gave her a hard time at first because she never talked. Within the last couple of years she didn't have much trouble, most likely because most of the other kids got used to the fact. That and the fact that Elisabeth got Jessica and a few of their friends to help her get back at a couple of the girls at a slumber party in the third grade by making them believe that Bloody Mary was out to get them. But now, she was just glad to see that she was getting some positive attention.

She looked up and saw how guilty Elisabeth looked. That was when she picked up on what was going on. "This is the boy that Jessie likes isn't it?" she implored.

Elisabeth sadly nodded. The fact that she also liked this boy and badly wanted to say yes made her feel even worse. She had no idea what to do.

"Does she know?" Cuddy questioned.

Elisabeth shook her head. She didn't want to talk to her until she had an idea of what she was going to do.

Cuddy sighed as she folded the note back up and handed it to Elisabeth. "Well, even if you are going to tell him no, I think you should talk to Jessie. He might have already told other people that he was going to ask you, and if school is still the same as it was when I went, then most kids already know he likes you. I don;t think you want her finding out at school through other people," she explained. The same thing had happened with her and her sister. She was the one who liked the guy and her little sister was the one that he liked and she had over heard two other girls talking about it and was pretty upset. She didn't want that happening to Jessica.

Elisabeth thanked her and then took the note and slowly made her way up the stairs. Cuddy just sat there and watched her for a minute, noticing how careful she was on the stairs.

O o o o o o

Gabrielle laid Jason down in his crib and gently kissed him on the forehead. "Good night," she whispered to him as she turned the light off. Carefully, she closed the door and then went down the hall to her bedroom.

"Hey," Andy said, smiling to her. "He's getting to sleep faster and faster lately," he mentioned from his spot in the bed.

Gabrielle laughed as she closed the door behind her. "Either that or I'm just getting better and better at putting him to bed," she stated.

Andy smiled to her as she turned her back to him to get her nightgown out of the dresser. He got up and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Maybe with this upcoming baby I can take over a few of the nights and learn how to get as good as you," he suggested.

Gabrielle laughed. Putting Jason to bed was the one thing that she absolutely had to do. Andy would feed him sometimes, get up in the middle of the night with him, change diapers, or bathe him at times, but she was always the one to put him to bed. That was her guaranteed time with Jason every day and she loved it. She would read him a story and snuggle with him and then put him to bed. "I don't think so," she answered with a smirk.

Andy kissed her neck. "What ever you say," he said and then continued to kiss her up and down her neck and shoulder.

"Andy, I'm a kindergarten teacher. I have to wake up early tomorrow and go into a room full of screaming kids," she protested.

"Fine," Andy said, backing off. "Don't let me have any fun," he said.

Gabrielle just laughed. "You know what, how about tomorrow we just both not show up to work and see what happens?" she suggested. "That way we can just go at it as much as we want for the next twenty four hours."

"Yeah buddy!" Andy cheered.

Gabrielle just rolled her eyes. "Friday night you can have your way with me," she informed him.

"I'll remember that," Andy stated as he went and got back in bed. He looked over to her as she got changed and smirked. "I think you should get another tattoo," he stated.

Gabrielle laughed. "Right," she replied. "I don't think so. I already don't like this one anymore," she explained.

"Why not?"

Gabrielle shrugged. "It was something stupid I did when I was like thirteen. I like to think that I'm a bit more mature than that now," she stated and then got into bed with him. "Isn't that how you would like to think of the mother of your children?" she questioned.

"I guess," Andy answered. He then looked over to Gabrielle. "Why haven't you told your parents your pregnant again? Last time you told them as soon as you found out."

Gabrielle shrugged. "Well," she started. "I found out right around Jessica and Elisabeth's birthday, and then I knew the next time I would see everyone was going to be Jason's birthday. I didn't want to take anyone's day away from them. Now, since their wedding anniversary is coming up, I'm thinking that maybe I'll just wait and tell them then," she explained.

"Makes sense," Andy responded.

Gabrielle just smiled to him. "I would love to stay up and talk to you, but I really have to get some sleep," she informed him and then leaned over and kissed him. "Good night," she said.

"Night," he replied.


	6. Equal Treatment

Chapter 5: Equal Treatment

Elisabeth took the note upstairs to her bedroom where she knew that Jessica would be. Getting to the doorway, she stopped a moment and just watched her sister for a moment, trying to figure out how she would handle the new information.

Jessica had her back to the door as she worked on her science homework. She didn't even notice that anyone was there with her until Elisabeth decided to knock on the door frame. "Yes?" she asked. Since she didn't get a response, she knew who it was. "Hold on a sec," she requested as she finished the problem that she was working on.

Elisabeth walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder. Without any sort of hesitation, she leaned over and pointed to a part of one of the equations that Jessica had gotten wrong.

"Thanks," Jessica breathed out as she erased the problem and started over. She hated to be corrected, but Elisabeth also knew that even more than that, she hated to be wrong when the teacher would call on her for the answer.

While waiting for her to finish up, Elisabeth went and sat down on the bed. Carefully, she unfolded the note and reread it. The only thing on that paper that made her the slightest upset was the name on the bottom. It could have been any other boy there, but it had to be the one that Jessica liked.

In a way, she always felt a little sorry for Jessica. She wanted the attention, but never seemed to get it. She wanted to be the one to stick out and here she was in a family where she was practically the only normal one. Even though that should have been enough to make her the one to stand out, it didn't.

On the opposite end, she herself got more attention than she wanted. Most people felt sorry for her. Pity. She hated it. Her mother was constantly worried about her, her father would try to ignore it, but always had that look in his eyes when ever she would have slight issues with breathing. She could remember when she was younger, there were times that Gabrielle would give up a couple of her plans to stay home and hang out with her because she wasn't feeling well or she just couldn't breathe well that day and couldn't handle going out.

_Elisabeth was five years old. Cuddy was outside in the back yard with Tommy while Rachel and Jessica played. Elisabeth wasn't having that easy of a time though. Her next appointment was within that week, so there was a good amount of build up in her lungs. _

"_Hey Bethy," Gabrielle greeted as she came down the stairs. _

_Elisabeth sat up and looked over the back of the couch. Smiling, she waved. _

_Gabrielle returned the smile until she heard her cough. A squeaky, seal cough. "Not feeling good today huh?" she asked as she went and sat down next to her. _

_Elisabeth shook her head and then curled up and laid down on Gabrielle's lap. Looking up at Gabrielle, she saw her smile to her and then pull out her phone and call one of her friends. _

"_Hey, sorry Ally. It's gonna have to wait a bit. That okay?" she questioned. _

"What is it?" Jessica asked, sitting down next to her.

Elisabeth briefly held up the note and then handed it to her. She watched her sister as she started to read it. At first, a small smile appeared. The same as their mom's. She was genuinely happy for her. The moment that she got to the bottom though, it was obvious.

"Oh," Jessica whispered, disappointed. She folded the paper back up and handed it to her. "I see," she stated.

Elisabeth just nodded. She knew that she should just tell Donnie no at that point. There was no use in getting her more upset. Stuffing the note back into her pocket, she stood up and headed for the door.

Jessica looked up and watched her. There was something that she had always had in the back of her head, something more real to her than most other people. Her sister wasn't always going to be around. As a matter of fact, her time was a lot less than her's. "I think you should go with him," she spoke up before Elisabeth got too far down the hall.

Elisabeth stopped and thought for second, trying to make sure that she had heard her right. She went back and stopped in the doorway and asked her if she was sure about that.

Jessica just nodded. "Go for it," she responded as she forced a smile. It wasn't like it was her fault anyways. Donnie liked Elisabeth, not her, and that wasn't going to change with Elisabeth's answer to him.

Elisabeth just nodded and then went back downstairs, she knew what Jessica was doing. The same thing that Gabrielle did when she would cancel plans to stay home with her. The same thing that House did when he was home by himself with the kids and he would let her do just about what ever she wanted. The same thing that Cuddy did when she would let Elisabeth stay home from school when ever she wanted, even a few times when she wasn't sick, just because she wanted to.

Instead of going into the kitchen where she could hear House, Cuddy, and Rachel talking, she went and sat down in the living room by herself.

"Hey," Tommy softly greeted, trying to keep his parents from hearing him.

Elisabeth turned and saw him standing by the stair case with an envelope in his hand.

"Are they in a good mood?" he carefully questioned.

Elisabeth nodded and then starting to laugh, asked him if he was in trouble.

"Yeah," Tommy answered. "It isn't even my fault," he stated.

Elisabeth just rolled her eyes and turned back around. There was one thing about Tommy that she loved, he didn't go out of his way to treat her different like others did. He treated her like he treated everyone else. That might be annoying, but it was still equal treatment.

"It isn't!" he argued. "She has no idea what she's talking about and I wasn't about to just let her slowly corrupt every in that class and let us be behind when it comes to living our lives," he informed her and then headed to the kitchen, hoping that either House or Cuddy would see his point.

He walked into the kitchen to see House and Rachel sitting at the table while Cuddy stood at the stove.

"You know, I did offer to cook," House stated.

Cuddy just sighed. "Right. The last couple of nights I let you do that we ended up eating take out. I don't think we should do that a third night in a row," she explained.

"You're just mad cus you didn't think of it first," he shot back.

"Actually, the Chinese last night wasn't bad. As a matter of fact I would go for it again tonight," Rachel informed her.

House looked over and smirked to her. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," he said.

"Mom? Dad?" Tommy called. He was standing back in the doorway.

"Hey, look who argued with the teacher again," House announced, spotting the letter in his hand. It happened often enough that they had both expected it from him.

House actually thought it was funny. He liked to see his son argue with people, prove his point. Cuddy on the other hand though, wanted him out of trouble.

"Tommy!" Cuddy exclaimed as she set the spoon down by the stove and walked over. "What did you do today?" she asked, getting ready to yell at him.

"Well, since it changes all the time, let's take a look at what it says," House sarcastically remarked as he motioned for Tommy to come over to him.

Tommy obliged and handed him the letter. House opened the envelope and pulled the letter out and read it over. "Surprise surprise, he has been arguing with the teacher and getting the class wound up," he stated and then looked down to Tommy. "Sounds like someone's also a ring leader," he said.

"Don't encourage him!" Cuddy warned as she snatched the letter out of his hands.

"Oh come on! He's not out robbing banks and killing people," House argued.

Cuddy sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "Tommy, Rachel, can you two please leave your father and I alone for a few minutes?" she requested.

The two got up and quietly left the room. Once they were gone, Cuddy looked over to House. "You're enjoying this aren't you?" she questioned.

"Lisa, he argues in class. He basically says what every one in there is already thinking but is too afraid to say it. He's a leader who doesn't like bull shit. What's so bad about that?" he asked.

"He's going to have to listen to people his entire life. Letting him get away with constantly disobeying his teachers is going to give him the wrong message," she told him and then went back to the stove and checked on the vegetables that she was steaming.

"Great, you wanna raise an ass kisser," he responded.

Cuddy just ignored him. She knew that he wanted a rise out of her.

"Why don't you just be happy with your three little perfect angels and let me have this one?" he requested.

"You're giving me the daughters in exchange for your son?" she implored.

"No!" House replied. "I just want you to not become the wicked witch of the west every time he does something wrong," he explained.

Cuddy decided to just him have his way this time. "All right," she said and then turned to him with a smirk. "But, that means that you take care of all his punishments. Anytime the teacher wants to talk to one of us, you'll go by yourself," she stated.

"Fine," House replied.


	7. Questions

Chapter 6: Questions

Elisabeth sat underneath the tree in the shade while Donnie went to go get her something to drink. Looking over, she saw Rachel and Gerald together with a few of Rachel's friends, all talking about something amusing. There were a lot of times that she wished she could be more like Rachel. Open up and allow herself to become close to more people.

Besides Jessica, she had one close friend, Sophia. She, like her, was distant and more often by herself. When ever Jessica would go off to be with her friends, Elisabeth would go with Sophia. Most of the time, she avoided people. It was hard to explain to them why she couldn't talk, and why there were times where she just couldn't do normal things like run around and play games, that sometimes she just had to stay home.

Also, in the back of her head, she knew that she never had that long to live. From the time that she was eight, she had been trying to get herself used to the idea. That was a time in which she was back in the hospital due to breathing problems and Cuddy had went in there, crying, asking her if she knew what was going on. At that moment, she didn't need an explanation.

"Grape all right?" Donnie asked, holding up a juice box.

Elisabeth looked up and started to laugh. Nodding her head, she accepted the drink.

Donnie smiled to her and took his seat next to her. "Just wondering, why can't you talk?" he questioned. It might have been a little rude to ask, but he wanted to know. Besides, he never saw Elisabeth as one who is really all that sensitive.

Elisabeth looked down and grabbed a notepad that she had brought with her. She wrote down that she had a growth on her vocal chords when she was little and then handed the pad over to Donnie.

"Nice," he said and then handed the pad back to her. "Two years ago I had one removed from my liver. It wasn't cancer though, just a growth," he explained. He then looked up and watched her smile to him. "Can you make any noise?" he implored.

Elisabeth held her finger up, motioning for him to wait a second and then took her other hand and pressed down on the bottom of her neck. She made a small squeaking noise, but it was obvious that it was painful for her to do.

Donnie cringed a little. Not at the noise, the noise he thought sounded kind of cool. But he could just tell that it felt bad. "You didn't have to do that, you could have just told me that it hurt," he informed her.

Elisabeth shrugged and then took a drink of her juice. It didn't really matter, it wasn't excruciating, and it didn't last long. Besides, she liked that he was straight forward. Some people when they asked, they took twenty minutes just to explain to her that they didn't mean to offend her and they would tell her how bad they felt for her.

Now, it was her turn to ask him a question. She took her paper and pen and smugly peeked up to him over the paper as she wrote. After she was done, she handed the note to him.

"Why did you pick me?" Donnie read out loud and then looked up to her and shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "I think you're pretty, and I can tell that you're smart. You don't go on and on about yourself, which a lot of girls in our class do," he explained. "You're different."

Elisabeth began to blush. Smiling, she looked off to the side. Turning her attention back to him, she saw him covering the fact that he was beginning to laugh at her reaction. She didn't care though. Instead, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It was her way of saying thank you.

Donnie now sat back and slightly smiled. He wasn't quite sure what to say to that. Now, it was Elisabeth's turn to laugh at him.

O o o o o o

Gabrielle had Jason on her lap as she sat with House on the couch. It was Jason's nap time and he was starting to fall asleep.

"Just yesterday he was telling me that he was too grown up for naps," Gabrielle stated, smirking down at Jason.

"I take them when ever Lisa isn't looking," House stated.

Gabrielle looked up to him. "Well hey, a smart mind like your's needs a break here and there to keep functioning at it's best," she remarked. "That and the fact that you pop so many pills you probably just pass out."

"I happen to have an ailment," House informed her.

"Yeah," Gabrielle laughed. "Insanity."

"Says the girl who still sleeps with her blanky," he said.

Gabrielle just stared to him for a moment, trying to think of a comeback, but instead just raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Point taken," she admitted.

Cuddy walked in the door with a couple of grocery bags in her hand. "Hey Gabi," she greeted as she walked through to the kitchen.

Gabrielle turned back and smiled to her. "Hold on a sec. I want to talk to you," she stated and then looked over to House. "You think you can watch him?" she requested.

"Sorry, I don't like kids," House informed her.

"Just the sex then huh?" Gabrielle questioned as she scooped the little boy into her arms. Carefully, she stood up and then gently laid him back down on the couch.

"Momma!" he cried, lifting his head up.

Gabrielle leaned down and brushed his blonde hair back from his face. "You think you can stay with grandpa for a minute?" she gently implored.

Jason looked around and spotted House. He then went on to crawl over and climb onto his lap.

Gabrielle could see House slightly cringe as the toddler jabbed his knee into the scar on his leg. "Watch his leg," she warned.

House shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. It wasn't something that he wasn't used to with his own kids.

Gabrielle watched the two for a brief moment before going into the kitchen. She sat down as she watched Cuddy put the last of the groceries into the fridge. "I brought something for Elisabeth," she announced.

"Yeah?" Cuddy responded as she closed the fridge door and looked over to Gabrielle. "What's that?"

"That scrapbook that I had from elementary school through high school. Last time everyone was over at my house, she spotted it and got mad when I told her that she couldn't look at it," Gabrielle explained.

Cuddy suspiciously looked over to her as she made her way over to the table and joined her. "Why wouldn't you let her see it then?" she questioned. There had to be something in there that was bad. She herself never actually saw it, but then again, it was never really brought to her attention that she even had a scrapbook.

Gabrielle shrugged. "There were pictures of me being stupid," she answered.

"Embarrassing?" Cuddy asked.

"Kind of, but not really. I just don't like giving a twelve year old with an expiration date ideas of what she might want to try," Gabrielle replied. She wasn't fully thinking when she spoke, and noticed Cuddy's subtle change of expression when she used the term expiration date. "I shouldn't have put it quite that way," she confessed, trying to fix her error.

"It's fine," she responded. Cuddy just let it go and decided to just bypass the whole thing. "Where is this scrapbook?" she questioned.

Gabrielle stood up. "Hold on," she said and then headed out the room. Within a few seconds, she came back into the room carrying a photo album. "Here it is," she announced, setting it down before Cuddy and then taking her seat next to her.

Cuddy opened it. On the first page of course, there was a picture of Gabrielle on her first day of kindergarten. There were pictures from class parties, gatherings with relatives.

"I take it she was your best friend?" Cuddy inquired, pointing to a picture of Gabrielle and a little girl with light brown hair and dark eyes, the same girl that she had been seeing over and over again.

Gabrielle laughed. "That was Amelia," she answered and then looked up to Cuddy. "Resemble anyone you know?" she implored.

Cuddy studied the picture and then shook her head. "I don't know," she stated.

"Andy's little sister," Gabrielle informed her. "That was how I knew him so well. I was always over at his house. Amelia and I would play up in her room and he would be with his friends."

The next page, there was a picture of the two standing next to each other in their first Communion dresses with Andy standing with them, looking slightly annoyed. "You still have those pearls," Cuddy mentioned, noticing the necklace she was wearing.

Gabrielle laughed. "Yeah, my mom got them for me. I felt so grown up wearing them," she replied, smiling down at the picture.

There were some more pictures. Less and less with Maria and her family and more with Amelia and Andy. Then, suddenly, when Gabrielle was about ten, she saw the pictures go from Toledo, to out in Maine with her Aunt Eloise. There were less pictures, and they were with Gabrielle dressing up. A little later on, while still up in Maine, there were a lot of pictures of her and a young boy. One of them drinking together. One of Gabrielle and the boy kissing. In all those pictures, she was wearing dark eyeliner and dressing all in black.

Cuddy found those pictures to be slightly disturbing. Gabrielle looked older than she was. She looked tired, and almost scary thin.

Those pictures lasted through fourth and fifth grade. The pictures of her drinking, hanging around the docks at night, glazed over looks indicating that she had taken something.

"Dave Benson," Gabrielle said. "He was my best friend up there. I would sneak out at night after Eloise went to bed to hang out with him," she explained. "Last I heard, he overdosed when he was seventeen."

Cuddy kept her eyes on the pictures before her. She then went on, noticing that the pictures were now with Andy again, but no Amelia. "What happened to your best friend?" she questioned.

Gabrielle shrugged. "I don't know actually. When I came back, she was just gone. Andy never told me what happened to her. I don't even know if she's still alive," she responded.

Cuddy looked back up to her. There was something in her eyes, a hint of melancholy. She knew something, maybe not completely, but she had an idea of what had happened.

"I think this is how I remember meeting you," she mentioned, moving onto the more recent pictures of her in high school. The first one she saw was of Gabrielle with long, purple hair. Her, Marcy, and Veronica were outside on a trampoline with water guns.

"I had shorter pink hair when I showed up here," Gabrielle replied.

Cuddy shrugged and then continued on. There were more pictures in this section than there were in the rest of the book. Finally, she got to the Christmas pictures, the last ones of her and Maria together. Then the first one of her and House together. She could tell Gabrielle was holding the camera as she sat next to House, who was visibly irritated as he looked to the camera.

"There's the Hawaii pictures," Gabrielle mentioned as she looked at the one of her trying to build a sandcastle while Rachel destroyed it. Then the one that she had given to House as a Christmas gift a while back.

"Most of that trip was good," Cuddy said, thinking back on House backing out of the wedding.

Then there were the random pictures of Gabrielle with her friends. Some with her and her sisters. A few of just House and Cuddy together. Proms and dances. Then House and Cuddy's wedding where Gabrielle was the maid of honor and Wilson was the best man. All the way up until graduation day.

"I would have included Tommy in there, but he was born after," Gabrielle explained as she saw Cuddy close the book.

"Not too long after. He was born that night," Cuddy responded, handing her back the book.

"Four in the morning is early the next day. Way too early if you ask me," Gabrielle stated. "I came straight to the hospital at one in the morning because I finally decided to check my phone."

"Yeah, I could tell I pulled you from a party. I could smell the alcohol on your breath," Cuddy remarked as she rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't drunk!" Gabrielle defended herself. "I had only had a couple of drinks."

Cuddy knew that she wasn't drunk when she came in there, but there was no doubt that she was a a little buzzed.

"Anyways," Gabrielle sighed. "I think you can see why I was a little iffy on showing Elisabeth this. The more I thought about it though, she's a smart girl and you and daddy watch her like a hawk, so I don't think you would ever let her even have the opportunity to do these things," she explained.

"That's true," Cuddy mentioned. "Besides, she doesn't go out too often at night, and when she does, it's somewhere nearby where we know the parents."

"I just hope that my kids don't get into all the things I did," Gabrielle said.

"So far Jason seems promising," Cuddy stated, softly laughing.

"Well I would hope so!" Gabrielle replied. "My God, if he's doing this stuff now at two, we've got huge problems ahead."

"Something tells me you'll watch him pretty closely," Cuddy informed her.

"Yeah, and if this next one's a girl, I'm putting a tracking device on her," Gabrielle responded.

Cuddy looked up to her with surprise, to receive a giant grin from Gabrielle. "Yeah, I'm pregnant," she announced.

Cuddy smiled and hugged her. "Congratulations!" she said and then pulled back. "How far along?"

"Ten weeks," she answered with a smiled. She loved how excited Cuddy would get for her, she foud it to be cute.

"Have you told your father yet?" Cuddy questioned.

Gabrielle shook her head. "I don't really like telling him. At first, he seems happy for me, and then it's like it hits him that this is a confirmation that Andy and I doing it, and I don't think he likes that idea very much," she explained.

Cuddy laughed. "Yeah, I was there the last time you told him," she responded.

"You think I should go tell him now?" Gabrielle implored.

Cuddy shrugged. "Your baby. You tell him when ever you want," she answered.

Gabrielle got up. "I think I'll do it now," she said and then headed into the living room. "Hey daddy! You're gonna have another grandchild!" she bluntly announced.

House looked up to her. "Congrats," he said, showing some happiness. Then, there was the look, the same one she got last time, the one telling her that he wanted to kill Andy.

"Thank you daddy," she replied and then left it at that.

**To the class of 2012! My class officially graduated yesterday. Also, congrats to anyone else who has, or is getting ready to graduate this year. **


	8. Parenting

Chapter 7: Parenting

Gabrielle and Elisabeth sat up in House and Cuddy's room as she allowed her to look through the photo album.

Gabrielle sat there the whole time and just watched as Elisabeth flipped through the pages. She could tell that there were certain pages that interested her more than others.

"That right there is Andy and I when I was six and he was nine," Gabrielle pointed out to her.

Elisabeth looked up to her and laughed. It surprised her that Gabrielle and Andy went back that far. Then again, Gabrielle never did tell her much about her life.

Elisabeth stopped once again when she got to a picture of Gabrielle and Maria together. She didn't have to ask who it was, it had mommy and me written down under the picture. They looked happy together. They were sitting outside, Gabrielle was on the swing while Maria stood behind her, holding on to the ropes. Looking up, she could see Gabrielle blankly staring down at the picture and got her attention to ask if she missed her.

Gabrielle softly laughed. "Yeah," she answered.

Elisabeth nodded and then continued through the pictures. Once she got to the part where she was staying in Maine, she furrowed her brow. The sudden change perplexed her.

"I was staying with my aunt. If I wanted to have any fun, I would have to sneak out after she went to bed. She was sort of strict," Gabrielle explained.

Elisabeth kept her head down and continued to look at the pictures before her. Once she got back to Toledo, she could see the difference. She recognized Marcy, Doug, and Bucky from the pictures. They were the ones that had come out to see Jason when he was born and were also at the wedding.

She continued to go through the rest of the pages and then closed the book and stared to her. Gabrielle could tell that she wanted to ask her a few things, but didn't know where to start.

"Those pictures where we're drunk and in a cabin or in front of lake, the ones with Marcy and them, that's up at Put in Bay. That's a place back in Ohio. An awesome place really. Went back there the summer after sophomore year and then the summer after junior year. The last time was the summer after senior year," she explained, trying to keep away from the pictures that she had taken with Dave in Maine.

Elisabeth just looked to her again, studying her almost. She knew that there was something wrong. There had to be. She was about to ask, but Gabrielle went ahead and spoke up.

"You want to know about the time that I spent with my aunt don't you?" she questioned.

Elisabeth also mentioned the fact that she didn't notice Jake in any of the pictures.

"Nice one, first person here to point that out," Gabrielle told her. She looked down to the book for a moment and then looked back up to Elisabeth. "After daddy, my mom married this man, Charlie and then while they were married, she had Jake. He left her shortly afterwords. That's actually why I was staying with my aunt, my mom had started drinking a lot. It started out just a few drinks and then gradually built up. Anyways, my aunt Eloise had her own opinion of how I should be and started raising me to be this perfect little ballerina thing. Anyways, everything I did in those pictures, those were all things that she hated. She hated the black clothes, the heavy make up, me hanging around with boys," she explained.

Elisabeth just looked up to her with pity. Now, she was starting to wonder if that was what truly killed her mom. She decided to just go ahead and ask her.

Gabrielle shook her head. "No, there was actually a car wreck around here. That was the only reason that I even knew my actual father. Originally, Eloise was supposed to get me," she answered. She then smiled to her. "Did you know that mom was the one to gain custody of me in court?" she questioned.

Elisabeth shook her head. Now, she was curious. Instead of asking her anymore questions, she contently waited for her to go on and explain.

"Daddy has a bit of a past with getting in trouble, so he asked mom to step in and take care of the trial. That way, I had a better chance of ending up here, rather than with Eloise. See, my mom had signed something when I was younger, stating that if anything happened to her, I would go to Eloise," she explained.

Elisabeth just nodded. It was a lot to hear about someone in one night, but it helped her to understand things a bit more clearly. Gabrielle had always been extremely close with both parents, and anytime there was anything wrong, she knew that Gabrielle was running back and forth between the two. House would always show up a little late, and usually with Gabrielle right there watching him. She was loyal to both of them, and now she knew that she did feel that there was probably some loyalty that they deserved.

Looking up to Gabrielle, she could tel that she was starting to feel uncomfortable with this. She asked her if she wanted to go ahead and go downstairs.

"Sounds good to me," Gabrielle answered.

Ooooooo

Gabrielle sat down on the couch next to House while Jason slept on the empty cushion next to her. Cuddy sat in the chair while Elisabeth and Tommy sat in the other chair and Rachel sat on the floor.

"Gerald and I had a great time today," Rachel stated.

Gabrielle looked over and smirked. "Hopefully not too great of a time," she remarked.

House glared to her hit her leg, indicating for her to shut up.

"Ow," Gabrielle responded, looking to House with confusion. "Was that necessary?"

"She's twelve," he warned her.

Gabrielle just took the hint and nodded. She could remember times where he was very protective of her too. Now that she thought about it, she already felt bad for Rachel, knowing how things were about to get if she stayed with Gerald long enough.

"I'm glad I didn't go to that stupid picnic today. Unlike you three, I actually did something today," Tommy announced.

"Yeah? What's that?" Cuddy asked.

"Charlie and I found these roman candles in his basement. We're gonna light em off next weekend," he explained.

Cuddy's eyes widened as she looked from Tommy over to House. "Did you tell him that he could do that?" she nearly shrieked.

"I'm going to be there, and so will Charlie's dad, whatever his name is," House replied.

"You're going to allow our ten year old son to play with explosives?" she asked as calmly as she could.

"Again, I'm going to be there. Besides, there's only five. They each get one. I've shot a few off before, they're not that bad. The people who get in accidents with those things are either drunk, morons, or both. Besides, now that he knows it's not like you can just tell him to not do it. He just won't tell us when he does," House explained.

"Actually," Gabrielle started, looking over towards Cuddy. "I used those things when I was fourteen and I was fine."

"Not helping," Cuddy responded. Sighing, she stood up. "We need to talk," she told him and then turned and started towards the kitchen.

Gabrielle looked over to House as he rolled his eyes and started to laugh. "Good luck," she said.

"How can you just sit there and allow him to play with something that can kill him?" she sternly implored as soon as he got to the kitchen.

House looked up to her and saw her, standing there with her hands on her hips. She was pissed, but instead of caving in, he sighed and sat down at the table. "I already told you, the kids found them and no matter what we say or anyone says, they're going to use them. At least this way there can be people there to show them the right way to set them off without killing themselves," he tried to reason with her.

Cuddy dropped her hands from her hips, one going to the counter for her to lean on, and the other momentarily covering her face as she let out a heavy sigh. "That's not the point Greg," she steadily informed him as she removed her hand from her face and glared up to him. "You went ahead and gave him permission to do something that could either seriously injure him or kill him."

House leaned back in his chair. "And you can't get killed or injured doing anything else? People die from tripping and falling down the stairs everyday, but that doesn't mean that we all only use elevators or live in single story homes. All you have to do is breathe in the wrong place at the wrong time and you can catch a life threatening disease," he explained and then looked up to her. "I'm not sending him out to a firing squad to get shot at, I'm allowing him to set off a single firework and then come back home. You can't keep coddling him forever," he added.

"I'm not coddling him!" Cuddy argued. "I'm trying to protect him!"

"The same way you try and protect Elisabeth?" he questioned, knowing that he would stick her with that one.

Cuddy just stopped and looked to him for a minute, narrowing her eyes on him. "All right," she responded in defeat. "I'll stay here with Elisabeth while you take one of our kids that actually has a chance of living to a normal age and allow him to risk his life over something completely stupid," she stated and then left the room.

House sighed as he leaned his head back and looked up towards the ceiling. She was not about to let this go.

ooooooo

Jessica sat up in her room as she painted her nails. She really didn't like doing that, every time she painted her nails she would just sit there and chip the paint off. It was just something to do to pass the time.

She just did not want to be downstairs. She knew exactly what was going on right now. Rachel would be telling everyone how wonderful her day with Gerald went and how they are planning on hanging out together more often. Everyone would be asking Elisabeth about Donnie and how that went today. Tommy would be back there laughing at both of them, probably the only thing that she could tolerate hearing.

It wasn't that she was upset with either Rachel or Elisabeth, or that she didn't like them. She was just tired of how Rachel somehow always got what she wanted, the boy that she likes also likes her, she gets to be in the class with all of her friends, everything constantly goes perfectly for her. Then there was Elisabeth, everyone always wanted to know how her day went. They always wanted to know how she was feeling, what happened, did she enjoy this, what does she want now. Again, she understood why Elisabeth got so much attention, and she also knew that there were a lot of times that it annoyed Elisabeth.

"Hey kid," Gabrielle said, standing in the doorway.

Jessica looked up to her and forced a small smile. "Hi," she responded and then looked back down.

"Well aren't you the little miss sunshine?" she questioned as she walked in and sat down in the chair at the desk. "So, I got a few movies. The Exorcist, The Omen, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Shining. You wanna come over tonight and watch them?" she offered.

Jessica turned to her with confusion. "Elisabeth already asked if she could watch The Shining, and mom said no," she explained.

"So?" Gabrielle asked.

"So," Jessica started. She had always been the goody two shoes. "I don't think that we should watch it," she stated.

Gabrielle shrugged. "All right then," she replied and then stood up.

"That's it?" Jessica implored. "You're not watching them anymore?"

Gabrielle shook her head. "I already pulled the other three aside and asked them and they wanted to. I'm not gonna force you to though," she explained and then started to leave.

"Wait," Jessica called out to her.

Gabrielle smirked as she stopped. She knew that she had changed her mind. "What?" she questioned, turning back to her.

"If everyone else is," Jessica responded. She knew that she was always the one to do the right thing, why not try something different tonight? Besides it would look weird to her parents if everyone went but her. She liked to do the right thing, but she was never one to tattle tale.

"Okay, just be downstairs in twenty minutes," she instructed.

"Can I ask one question first?" Jessica asked.

"I think you just did," Gabrielle replied.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "Why?"

Gabrielle looked to her for a second. "Why... ?" she asked, trying to get her to finish her question.

"Why are you having us over tonight? It's kind of random," Jessica said.

Gabrielle shrugged. "I was just thinking, after I got married to Andy I started spending less time with you guys, and then Jason was born and I started spending even less time with you, and now I'm pregnant again, so that will be even less time than before," she answered. It was true, she used to spend a lot of time with the four of them while she was still living there, and then even when she moved out before she got married.

Jessica smiled to her. "I hope it's a girl this time," she informed her.

Gabrielle just laughed. "Secretly, so do I," she responded before turning and leaving.


	9. Protective

Chapter 8: Protective

Gabrielle had brought everyone back to her house and had gotten Jason put to bed.

Andy sat on the end of the couch with his arm around Gabrielle. Next to her was Rachel and then Tommy. Jessica and Elisabeth shared the chair together. The lights were out as they watched the end of _The Shining._

"That Danny kid is actually pretty smart for being like six," Andy commented.

Gabrielle softly laughed while keeping her eyes on the screen. "Just because it would have taken you forever to figure it out, doesn't make the kid a genius," she stated.

"I wouldn't have covered my tracks," Tommy said. "I would've climbed on top of the bushes. He's small enough to where they might still support his weight but Jack would never be able to get up there. That, and Danny would get out of there quicker," he explained.

Elisabeth clapped to get everyone's attention and then suggested that he walk backwards so that Jack follow the tracks the wrong way.

"Maybe, but then he would have a hard time watching out for Jack. Knowing horror movies, he would just sneak up on him," Gabrielle responded.

Elisabeth shrugged, she still thought that it would work.

Rachel slightly laughed. "He also could've just dragged his feet making trails and confuse Jack as to which way to go," she suggested.

Tommy caught the very end of the movie and just stared at the screen. "What the hell was that?" he questioned.

"Jack froze to death. I guess that's where everyone goes if they die there. Didn't you notice the twins in that picture too with the butler?" Andy answered.

Gabrielle smiled over to Andy and kissed him on the cheek. "Very good sweetie!" she said. Then looking to her siblings who were a bit confused, she laughed. "Normally, he doesn't care for these movies and just stops paying attention all together."

"It still doesn't make sense," Tommy argued, annoyed.

"As opposed to the rest of the movie?" Rachel implored.

Elisabeth mentioned that movies were never meant to make perfect sense. That's why most people enjoy them, because they are not like real life.

"I can agree with that," Jessica stated.

Elisabeth looked to her with concern, knowing that there was more behind the comment.

Gabrielle caught on to what was going on, but didn't say anything yet, not now. "Okay, _The Exorcist_ or _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_?" she offered.

Tommy raised his hand. "I like the massacre one," he announced.

Rachel turned to him with disgust. "You're morbid," she informed him.

"And that's exactly why I like him," Gabrielle replied as she got up to grab the movie, causing Tommy to stick his tongue out at Rachel.

ooo

House went and joined Cuddy in bed. After climbing in bed, he leaned over and kissed her. "You know," he started. "We have the while place to ourselves, we can be as loud as we want," he offered and then kissed her again.

Cuddy sighed as she looked forward. His comment about being over protective earlier got her to thinking. Was she really that bad? And was it for all the wrong reasons? "Were you serious earlier about me being over protective?" she implored, looking over to him.

House sighed and stared to her as if she were insane. "You're fine," he answered and then went in and kissed her.

Getting irritated, Cuddy sat back away from him. "Greg! I'm trying to discuss our children and all you have on your mind is sex?" she questioned.

"Technically, that is the most important part. Without it they wouldn't even exist," he responded.

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever," she said and then laid down and turned over.

"You really want my opinion?" he asked.

Cuddy turned over and looked to him. "Yes."

"I think you are over protective. You told Rachel last month that she couldn't get a second piercing because the first one got infected. It was only infected once and only because Jason thought her earrings were shiny, not because she neglected them," he explained and then leaned over and brushed her hair back behind her ear. "Which is really weird when mommy used to have a couple piercings herself."

Cuddy sighed. "I know, you're right. I did go a little overboard," she responded and then looked to him. "You could ease too a little," she informed him.

"No I can't," House replied. "Boys start thinking about sex when they're eleven and don't stop until they're dead. I can guarantee you every guy that ever did anything nice for you was trying to get into your pants," he stated.

Cuddy looked over and smirked. "Even you?" she inquired.

"I'm trying right now," he admitted.

"You realize that no one is going to get into anyone's pants out in public right?" she questioned.

"A man once got arrested at Wal Mart for doing one of those tables with the hole in the center for the umbrella. I think that alone trumps your argument," he explained.

"Could you at least not get irritated when they talk about guys?" she requested. "And I'll loosen the leash a little?"

House sighed. "Fine," he replied and then looked to her. "Now?" he asked.

Cuddy laughed. "All right," she answered and then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

ooo

It was about three in the morning. Elisabeth had fallen asleep during the movie and Andy and Tommy had both gone to bed. Gabrielle, Jessica, and Rachel went and sat down in the kitchen.

"I gotta ask you one question," Gabrielle started, looking to Jessica. She was exhausted, but she felt that she had to talk to Jessica before she went to bed. Seeing that Jessica was looking to her with interest, she continued. "Is our little Jessie seeking attention?" she implored.

"Why?" Jessica asked.

Gabrielle shrugged. "I saw that look that Ellie gave you earlier," she answered.

Rachel looked to her with disbelief. "You got that out of a look?" she questioned.

Gabrielle softly laughed. "Well, it was after she made she agreed that movies were good because they weren't like real life," she explained. "And, I think I have a fairly good idea of how things go over there. I mean, I have been there before. Rachel here is Mommy's little girl. Tommy and Daddy do everything together. Then there's Ellie, and I know she and Daddy have to get along because she reminds me of him in a lot of ways, and you know Mom's always worried about her," she said.

Jessica just nodded. "Yeah," she replied.

Gabrielle offered her a small smile. "They both love you, trust me. If you really think you're being ignore, all you have to do is tell mom and she'll feel guilty enough to let you do whatever you want," Gabrielle assured her.

Jessica smirked and looked down towards the table. It wasn't a bad idea, but she wasn't going to do it.

"Besides, daddy would've told ya by now if they didn't like ya," she joked.

Jessica looked up and started to laugh. "Maybe I should go and ask him who is favorite is," she joked, knowing truthfully that he would be the only one to give an honest answer if she really wanted to know that bad.

"It's Gabi," Rachel instantly responded without even thinking about it.

Gabrielle looked over to her and laughed. "He told you that?" she implored, disbelieving her sister.

"No," Rachel replied. "But, Ellie went through his wallet and your picture from when you were younger is still in there. You were the only one that he took to work with him and showed off. When ever mom says that we have to get ready for you to come over or to come over here, he doesn't complain. A picture of you two together is still on his desk in his office," she listed the examples.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Give him a picture and move out. Then we can compare," she stated.

"Still think it's you," Rachel said.

"Maybe," Gabrielle responded, thinking it over. "Anyways, who do you think is mom's favorite?" she questioned, simply to get the conversation off of her.

Jessica looked up and really thought about it. "I think that's still you," she answered.

That answer, made Gabrielle laugh. "There is no way in hell that I am her favorite," she informed her.

Rachel shrugged. "Why not? She adores you. Just look at how happy she was when you told us that you were pregnant," she responded.

"All that proves is that the woman likes babies," Gabrielle argued. "Besides, we used to get into it sometimes. There were times that she would hurt me bad and others where I would get her twice as bad. I mean, we have made each other cry on occasion, and it's hard to get me to cry over something you say," Gabrielle explained.

"She made you cry?" Jessica asked, not able to see the two fighting that badly.

"I got her more than she got me though, and I kind of deserved it. I was the one that would purposely go in and pick at what I knew would get her the most. I would get her crying pretty good though, especially when she was pregnant, then I really got her going. Her's were more like things she just happened to say without realizing what she was saying. Accidents," Gabrielle explained.

"That's terrible! Why would you do that?" Rachel implored. She then sat back and looked to her with interest. "What did you do exactly?"

"Well," Gabrielle started, trying to think back. "There was the time where she had found out that she was pregnant, and it was before Tommy, one that she obviously ended up miscarrying. Anyways, it was while the three of you were still babies and she was stressing out over it. She was really tense there for a while and Daddy and I were trying to talk to her, trying to help her out and she kept pushing us away and getting herself more miserable. So, what I did to get her to talk to Daddy was I started telling her what I knew was really going on and got her basically broken down and crying and then I went and got Daddy and she finally started talking to him after that," she told them.

"That's not really that bad," Jessica announced.

"Let's hear a couple more before we comment," Rachel requested, keeping her eyes on Gabrielle.

Gabrielle sighed. She really didn't like doing this, but then again, she was the one who had brought it up in the first place. "Um, another time, I hadn't heard yet that her mother had died. Of course, she was a little edgy after that. I myself was too busy thinking about myself because Andy and I had just had a bad fight and broke up over it and I was pretty much angry towards everything and everyone for a couple of days after that. Anyways, I told her to stop acting like a baby, that she was being selfish and ended with telling her that if she kept it up, that everyone around her would rather die than put up with her," she explained. "I felt so bad though after daddy told me what was going on," she mentioned, started to think back on that time, wishing she could have kept her mouth shut for just ten minutes more for her dad to get home and tell her.

Gabrielle looked up and saw Rachel intently waiting for another story. "Last one," she told her and then thought back. There was one that stuck out to her. One that she remembered the most.

"My senior year, my Aunt, one that I didn't get along with, had died. She had left me something in her will that really got to me, and she had known exactly what she was doing when she left it to me. Mom was just trying to help me out, and I told her that she was only making things worse and slammed the door in her face," Gabrielle said, staring down towards the table.

(_It was right after Christmas her senior year. Gabrielle sat down in the living room on the couch. Cuddy had just come downstairs from putting the twins to sleep for their nap and House sat in the chair, watching as Gabrielle carefully examined the envelope. _

_"You don't have to open that if you don't want to," Cuddy stated as she sat down in the chair with Rachel. She was about to read her a story. _

_"No," Gabrielle stated and then looked up and smiled. "I have to. It's probably her true thoughts on me, and I honestly want to read them. Just to get a laugh out of it," she explained. _

_"Too bad you can't respond," House remarked. _

_"I know right?" Gabrielle asked as she opened the envelope. She took out a letter and unfolded it. As soon as she started reading it, her smile dropped. Suddenly, she crumbled the letter, dropped it, and then hurried off up the stairs to her room._

_House got up and grabbed the letter and straightened it out enough to read it. _

_"What is it?" Cuddy asked, concerned. _

_"Yeah! What is it?" Rachel squealed. _

_"To whoever finds me here, I want you to know for sure that I did this myself. I just couldn't handle this anymore. Everything has gone wrong so far in life. My parent's helping to support me, relationships with men that are doomed to fail from the beginning, it is all becoming too much. The daughter that I shouldn't have had is also getting to me, needing this and that, and taking away any chance I had of actually making it on my own," he read out loud and then looked up. "That's Maria's handwriting. No one could ever copy that," he informed her, handing Cuddy the letter. _

_As soon as the letter was out of his hands, he headed upstairs to Gabrielle's room. "Hey!" he called out as he knocked on the door. "I just want to make sure that you're not being stupid and I'll leave," he assured her. _

_Gabrielle, who had just been sitting on the edge of her bed, blankly staring, got up and opened the door. "See?" she questioned, holding out her arms to show him that she had not been cutting herself. _

_"Sure," House replied. That wasn't enough though. He used his cane to push her out of the way and started to search her room for anything that she could use to kill herself. Once he had gathered anything sharp and things that she could suffocate herself with, he went to the door. "There, now you can hide up here all you want. You can have these things back when you're more stable," he instructed on his way out. _

_Gabrielle closed the door behind him and then went and sat back down on her bad. She wasn't thinking about killing herself, but she understood why he had done that. _

_Maria's letter was stuck in her mind. The writing, there was no questioning that it was her writing. It had been written while she was drunk, she could tell from how loopy some of the letters were. It was eating away at her, knowing that she could have been part of the reason if her own mother had committed suicide. There was nothing in that letter about her apologizing for anything, just stating that Gabrielle was only a burden to her. _

_Lowering her head, she started to cry. _

_House headed back downstairs and laid the items on the table. "There," he said and then sat down on the couch. _

_Cuddy curiously looked to him. "What did she say?" she implored. Right now, she was more scared than anything. Disgusted with Eloise, but more scared of how Gabrielle was reacting. _

_"She didn't. She wanted to be alone, so I just grabbed the stuff and left," he explained._

_"How could you not talk to her Greg? You know that she holds these things in until she acts out. I don't want to see her trying to cut herself because you left her alone," Cuddy explained as she stood up and put Rachel down in her playpen. _

_House looked up to her, irritated that she thought he had no idea what he was doing. "You have to give her some time or else you'll make things worse," he warned her. "She has to be able to calm down so that she can at least think rationally." _

_Cuddy headed up the stairs and stopped before the door. "Gabi?" she called and she knocked on the door. _

_"Now is not the time," Gabrielle warned. Her voice shaky from crying. _

_"I just wanted to check on you," she said. _

_Gabrielle got up from her bed and opened the door. "And what? Make sure I was okay?" she questioned, getting annoyed. Her reaction left Cuddy speechless. "And what if I wasn't? Would you tell me that the letter was wrong? That it was fake? Tell me that I took it the wrong way? Because I know that that's Maria's writing and I can tell exactly what she meant," she argued. _

_"She wasn't in the right state of mind," Cuddy started. _

_"Don't give me that," Gabrielle spat. "You know that it doesn't matter what state of mind she was in. All that matters is that I was the one who drove her there."_

_Cuddy stood there with nothing to say. "I don't know what to tell you," she helplessly admitted. _

_"That's what I thought," Gabrielle stated. "So why don't you just go and leave me alone instead of standing there, reminding me of the fact that I almost drove my own mother to suicide. You have to learn that you can't fix everything with talk and you can't fix me. You can say a lot of things about both Maria and Eloise, but at least neither of them tried to feed me this stupid idea that everything is going to be okay when it isn't," she explained and then slammed the door in Cuddy's face. _

_Cuddy stood there, dumbly staring at the door. Now, she knew that she had made things worse. Tears forming in her eyes, she turned and headed to her room. _

_Gabrielle turned and leaned her back against the door. As she heard Cuddy begin to cry, she slid down to the ground and held her face in her hands. Further proof that she was a horrible person. She was bad enough to get her mother to consider killing herself to get away from her, and now she was hurting those who actually cared. Great. Raising her head, she revealed a red, puffy, tear stricken face. She quieted herself and listened to find out whether or not Cuddy had left the hallway. Silence. Standing up, she gingerly grasped the doorknob and slowly opened the door. Peeking out into the hall, she saw that she was right, but that she still had to be careful since Cuddy's door was closed, meaning that she was in there. _

_As quietly as possible, she made her way down the hall to the bathroom and then carefully closed the door behind her. Knowing her father, he had to have a bottle stashed somewhere in here. Easily enough, they were right in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror, the first place that she had checked. _

_Gabrielle grabbed the bottle and studied it for a moment. She then closed the cabinet and took one last look at herself in the mirror, wondering who would truly miss her. If anyone's life actually benefited from her existing. All that came to mind was the bad that she had done, the suffering that she had caused at times. Not able to take it anymore, she tightly shut her eyes and opened the bottle, spilling an unknown amount into her mouth._

_She set the bottle back down on the sink and then sat down and leaned against the bath tub. All she had to do was sit there and wait. _

_Cuddy stepped out of her room, still sniffling a little. As she passed Gabrielle's room, she saw the door was open and that she wasn't in there. The next thing she noticed was the bathroom door. "Gabi!" she called out, rushing towards the bathroom. As soon as she got there, she opened the door. "Oh God," she gasped, seeing the opened bottle on the sink. _

_House came and stood in the doorway. He didn't have to ask. As soon as he saw the bottle, he dropped his cane and went as quickly as he could over to Gabrielle. Getting down on the floor, he grabbed her head and forced her over to the toilet where he jammed his finger down her throat, causing her to vomit. As soon as he was convinced that she had thrown up enough to get the pills out of her system, he let go of her head and stood up to go count the pills left in the bottle. _

_Cuddy watched as Gabrielle curled up and started sobbing. She went and joined her on the ground and embraced her. As she watched House, she started rubbing the young girl's back, trying to get her to calm down. _

_"There's nineteen in here," House announced, holding up the bottle. "The most she could have taken was five. She'll be fine," he said and then left. He couldn't stand seeing his daughter like that. Right now, he wished that Eloise were still alive, just so that he could painfully kill her, make her pay for what she did._

_Cuddy sat there on the bathroom floor, basically holding Gabrielle while she sobbed. "Don't you ever do that again," Cuddy sternly warned, with tears in her eyes. _

_"Because I'm such a good person right?" Gabrielle sorely questioned. _

_"I don't know what either of us would have done if you actually would have killed yourself," Cuddy replied. "You remember when you were in the hospital and they thought you might die? The time that your dad overdose and I had a panic attack?" she asked. _

_Gabrielle pulled back. "Why? I'm obviously not someone who's worth it," she inquired. _

_"Don't you dare ever even think that," Cuddy replied. She then grabbed her shoulders. "You listen to me, your dad and I need you. We love you, no matter what you do because you are not a horrible person. You are not the root of everyone's problems. Maria obviously had a lot of other things that were wrong when she wrote that letter, and she didn't know who to blame, so she picked you," she explained. _

_"I wish I could believe that," Gabrielle said. _

_Cuddy took her back in her arms. "You should, it's true," she responded._)

"I think she's gotten over it," Rachel informed her, seeing that Gabrielle was starting to feel bad.

"I would hope so," Gabrielle replied, looking up to her.

"I think mom's favorite is either Rachel or Ellie," Jessica said, trying to move on from what they were talking about.

"I know that Ellie definitely scares her the most," Gabrielle responded. "I remember when she first brought you two home, she was afraid to leave you two and daddy ended up having to force her to go to bed."

"I wonder if Ellie ever gets scared," Rachel mentioned.

Jessica looked over to her and shook her head. "She doesn't." she answered and then smiled. "She told me one night while she was working on her bucket list, that accepting death gives her a chance to be fearless and do whatever she wants. Why worry about getting killed when you're already close to death?"

Gabrielle liked that. That courage. At the same time though, it was morbid and depressing, a twelve year old accepting the fact that she would die soon.

"She has a bucket list?" Rachel implored, a little disturbed by the idea.

"Yeah," Jessica replied. "Mostly things that mom told her she couldn't do. Parasailing, swimming in the ocean, Times Square on New Years Eve, paint ball fight, ballet, smoke something just to do it," she listed.

Gabrielle slightly smiled. She wanted to see this list. If she could help her little sister cross a few things off of this list, she was be that much happier.


	10. Favorites

Chapter 9: Favorites

Elisabeth woke up before everyone else the next morning. She had trouble breathing, and wasn't able to get back to sleep. There were nights like this before, so it didn't exactly scare her.

Trying to keep as quiet as she could, she made her way into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of cereal. She had no idea what time it was as she sat down, but she could see that the sun was at least up.

"Hungry dadda!" she heard Jason demand from the stairway.

Andy came in carrying Jason into the kitchen and set him down in his highchair. "Hey Ellie," he greeted, a little startled by her presence.

Elisabeth smiled and waved. She knew that Andy felt a little awkward around her. He knew very little sign language, so it was a little hard for the two to communicate.

"Morning," Jason greeted, trying to get Elisabeth's attention.

Elisabeth waved to him, but that wasn't enough for the boy. "Morning!" he tried again, causing Elisabeth to laugh.

"She can't talk Jason. She lost her voice," Andy explained, hoping that Jason would understand. He waited a second by Jason as he handed him a bowl of dry cereal and a sippy cup with milk.

"You lost voice?" he asked.

Andy just laughed and went to go get his own breakfast ready.

Elisabeth looked to him and nodded.

"Where did you lose it?" Jason questioned, confused and amazed by this whole thing.

Elisabeth shrugged. Going along with it, she looked under the table and then tried picking up her bowl and looking under it. Setting the bowl down, she tried her hardest to keep a straight face as she shrugged and nodded.

Jason took the sippy cup and tried his hardest to look through the mouth piece into the cup.

"What's ya doing there buddy?" Gabrielle asked, trying her hardest to sound a little enthusiastic this morning. Her voice was still a little hoarse and weak sounding though.

"Looking for her voice," Jason casually answered, pointing to Elisabeth.

Gabrielle briefly chuckled and sat down at the table. Andy walked over and handed her a glass of orange juice. "Feeling any better?" he inquired, his hand gently on her back.

"Thanks, and yes," Gabrielle quickly answered before taking a sip and then laying her head down on the table.

Elisabeth looked up to Andy. "She was throwing up early this morning," he told her.

Elisabeth moved herself closer to Gabrielle and started stroking her hair. Starting to laugh, Gabrielle lifted her head. "I'm even getting sympathy from the sick. I think someone was lying to me this morning when they told me that I didn't look that bad," she stated, looking to Andy.

Andy shrugged. "Maybe I'm a little biased," he offered.

Gabrielle smirked and pointed to Andy. "I think I like that," she replied.

"Me too," Jason said just to participate.

Gabrielle laughed and then looked over to Elisabeth. "Something interesting about you came up last night. Is it true that our little mime has a bucket list?" she implored.

Elisabeth nodded and told her that she would show it to her when they got back to her house.

"Good, I wanna see it. Help you cross off a few things," Gabrielle informed her, and then yawned. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I can finally go back to sleep," she said and then got up and headed for the door.

ooooo

Cuddy sat down in the living room with her robe on. She had gotten up late and House was still upstairs sleeping.

The silence through out the house was broken as the door opened and Gabrielle lead her siblings inside. "Hey mom," she weakly greeted.

Cuddy looked up and smiled. "How was last night?" she questioned.

Elisabeth left the group and headed upstairs. She told Gabrielle that she could see the list and she wanted to get it for her.

The others went and sat down in the living room. "I heard that Gabrielle made you cry," Rachel announced.

Cuddy laughed. "Well, that's uh, nice."

Gabrielle laughed. "They were trying to figure out who your's and daddy's favorites were and they thought that I might be your's, so I said no," she explained.

"Yeah, for you we narrowed it down to either me or Ellie," Rachel told her. "And then either Gabi, Tommy, or Ellie."

"Interesting," House said as he made his way down the stairs. "Ellie was nominated for both and Jessie was on neither list." He came and stood behind the couch. "Just how did you figure these lists out?"

"Who was with who more, who did more things together, who had more in common," Rachel listed.

"How do you know that that's the parent's choice and not just each kid picking their favorites?" Tommy questioned.

Gabrielle pointed to him. "Good question," she replied.

"Either way, it works," Rachel argued, completely dismissing him.

"Why wasn't Jessie mentioned?" Cuddy asked.

Jessica looked to her and shrugged. "I just didn't think that I was anyone's favorite," she answered.

Gabrielle got Cuddy's attention and just looked from her to Jessica with concern. Silently trying to let her know what was going on.

Cuddy sat forward and just watched Jessica for a minute. "Jessie? Honey? Can I talk to you in the kitchen?" she requested.

Jessica looked up to her, surprised. "Yeah, sure," she answered and then got up and followed her into the kitchen.

Cuddy sat down at the table and waited for Jessica to join her. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing," Jessica meekly answered.

"The sooner you tell me, the sooner that we can get out of here," Cuddy urged her.

Jessica looked down for a minute. She wasn't so shy about her feelings that she was about to close herself off, but she was about to hesitate to tell her about what was going on. "Daddy took Gabrielle to work with him and is happy to always see you, you two used to do a lot of things together, she told me that you used to take her out before dances and any events and all of that. I also heard that she was pretty popular in school," she started. "Then you do everything with Rachel, everyone at school likes her, including the boy that she likes. Then daddy just loves Tommy, even when he's getting in trouble at school."

Cuddy was starting to see where this was going and nodded with understanding.

Jessica then looked up to Cuddy. Guilt in her eyes. She hated what she was about to say, because she really did love Elisabeth, and she did understand why things with her were the way that they were. It just got to her sometimes. "And then everything always revolves around Ellie. Every time we make any plans, we have to plan around her. Nothing can happen around here without her coming first. Last month when I was told that I would get an award for my short story, no one came for me because you were all at the hospital with Ellie," Jessica explained.

Cuddy looked to her for a second. She honestly did not remember hearing anything about an award. "I'm sorry," she sincerely stated. "I guess we just get caught up around here and things get missed. You have to understand, Ellie has always been scaring us and then well, Rachel is now the oldest girl here and staring to really want to grow up quickly on me and then Tommy is the only son. We don't mean to leave you out."

Jessica shrugged. "It's all right," she said.

Gabrielle rushed to the doorway, short of breath. "I hate to break up a moment here, but Ellie just passed out and fell down the stairs," she informed them.

Cuddy jumped up and nearly ran out of the room.

Gabrielle looked down to Jessica to see her sadly looking down towards the table. "Sorry to ruin your moment kid," she apologized.

Jessica looked up to her. "It's okay," she replied and then stood up.

"You wanna ride with me to the hospital? You can talk to me if you want," Gabrielle offered.

Jessica smiled and nodded. "Sounds good," she responded.

"Good," Gabrielle said and then lead her out of the room.


	11. Waiting

Chapter 10: Waiting

Jessica sat next to Gabrielle in the car on the way to the hospital. "So, you and mom talked?" Gabrielle implored, trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah," Jessica answered. "She apologized. For what? I'm not really sure."

Gabrielle laughed. "What do you mean? You know exactly what she apologized for. You were feeling a little ignored, and she was sorry about that," she explained.

Jessica sighed. "Yeah, but, I know why Elisabeth gets so much attention, and I understand why. There's no need to say sorry for that."

Gabrielle nodded. "You didn't mention Tommy or Rachel," she said.

"So?" Jessica asked, getting a little defensive.

"Someone a little upset that they can still make time for them?" Gabrielle inquired.

Gabrielle pulled into the parking lot and turned the car off. Getting no answer from Jessica, she sighed. That was her answer right there. "Listen, like I said, they love you. And, we all know that it sucks to have our moments taken away from us and all the attention to go to someone else, but there's nothing you can do about it. Ellie doesn't choose when to get sick and neither mom nor dad can just say she'll be fine and leave her alone."

"I know that," Jessica said. She went to open the door to leave, but Gabrielle grabbed her arm and told her to wait.

"You know, you have something that most people in this family would kill to have right?" Gabrielle implored.

Jessica just patiently looked to her.

"You know Ellie more than us. You're closer to her than most of us ever will be," she explained. "I remember when you two were like three years old, and one time I was sitting there coloring with you. All Ellie had to do was put her hand out and you knew what crayon to hand her. You would explain to us what she always needed when she was still learning sign language and didn't know what to say. I mean, you have been the best sister to her ever, you let her go out with the boy that you liked. At her funeral, you will probably be the only one that can truly say that throughout Ellie's life, you always made sure that she was happy no matter what. Mom and dad have both sacrificed and done things for her, but they can't be nearly as close to her as you are. You can practically read her mind."

Jessica smiled to her. She liked that, it was nice, and something that no one else had.

Gabrielle returned the smile. "And maybe now that you talked to mom, she might include in more of the things that she and Rachel do together. God knows you rather that than try and get included with what dad and Tommy do, whatever they do," she stated.

Jessica laughed at the comment and shrugged. "Maybe," she replied.

"Well, we'd better get in there," Gabrielle announced.

Jessica nodded and they both got out of the car and walked together to the entrance of the hospital.

ooooooo

House sat on the chair in the waiting room, watching Cuddy slowly pace before him while Gabrielle rested her head on his shoulder, dosing off. Rachel, Jessica, and Tommy all sat quietly in another section of the waiting room.

"In your medical opinion, are her chances better if you walk back and forth like that? Or do you think you should start in a new direction?" House questioned. He for one, was actually not that nervous, this had happened a few times before. Elisabeth would do more than she was capable of, such as running to quick or something like that while her lungs were at their worst. All they would do is go ahead with the lung lavage and then send her home. Not a big deal.

Cuddy stopped and glared to him. "I'm sorry that I'm nervous," she spat and then continued pacing. It wasn't so much that she was scared of what was going on right now, she knew exactly what was happening. It was the talk that she was going to hear afterwards. The doctor coming out and telling them that she had less time now than she did the last time this happened. That they would have to start bringing her in more often. She had to brace herself, get herself ready for that talk.

Gabrielle opened her eyes after hearing the little exchange of words and watched Cuddy steadily make her way back towards them. As she was walking past them, Gabrielle reached out and grabbed her hand. "At least this time you can take her home," she said and then let go of her hand.

Cuddy stopped and looked to her a minute. Mouth slightly agape, eyes glued to her. This time, yes this time they could take her home. "Right," she curtly responded and then quickly went back to pacing.

"Nice try," House stated.

"I could have found a better way to phrase that," she replied and then closed her eyes. This right now, was basically nothing. She could remember back when they thought that Elisabeth could have had cancer.

(_House and Gabrielle sat out in the hall on the floor against the wall. Cuddy was off with Wilson and a couple other people that came to see how Elisabeth was doing. Right now, they were preforming the biopsy to check whether or not the growth was cancerous. _

_"I think this is taking too long," Gabrielle sighed out, blankly staring forward. "Although, maybe it's better not knowing. You know what I mean?" she asked, turning her head towards House. "If they tell us it's cancer, we'll wish this right now would have lasted longer." _

_House continued to stare forward. No emotion. "It wouldn't be that bad if she did have it. Might actually be better that way," he flatly stated. _

_Gabrielle just looked to him. Yes, she thought that was bad to hear at first, but she wasn't about to say anything until he explained further. _

_"Now, she's a baby. She dies now, she won't have to get used to the idea of dying, won't have to learn about everything that she's missing out on and she won't be scared," he explained and then looked back to her. "Not too long ago we already found out that she was going to die early in life, this way, she doesn't get teased and have to die before she gets to either reach high school. There's also the fact that Rachel and Jessica won't miss her. Lisa will be attached, but something tells me that the longer she has with the kid, the harder it'll be on her, and there's you," he said._

_Gabrielle turned her head forward and leaned it against the wall. "You want a way with the least amount of suffering involved."_

_"I don't want to watch my daughter watch other kids play and grow up while she goes back and forth to the hospital knowing that she can't have the same plans as everyone else. Other kids choosing colleges, telling each other what they want to be when they grow up and she's sitting there thinking that it doesn't matter because odds are, she won't grow up," he responded. _

_"You ever wish she wasn't born?" Gabrielle questioned. _

_"I wish that she was born with working lungs," he corrected her. _

_"Don't we all?" she implored._ )

Gabrielle lifted her head off of House's shoulder and looked over towards Cuddy. "Before she gets back close to us, you still think it would have been better for Elisabeth to have died earlier on?" she questioned, keeping as quiet as possible so no one else heard.

"I don't know," House admitted. He loved her, he liked being with her, he was close to her. Then again, there would have been a lot less pain for everyone, including Elisabeth if she had gone earlier. Either way though, he wasn't happy.

Gabrielle nodded and laid her head back down. "Sucks don't it?"

House remained silent. She already knew the answer, there was no point in answering.

oooooooo

"I hate this place already," Rachel stated.

Tommy sighed and looked to her, annoyed. "Please tell me again, because I'm sure that I didn't catch it the first fifty times you told us," he remarked.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "You enjoy it?" she asked.

"Yes. It's loads of fun. Mom starts acting all nervous and irritated and then dad sits there and gets annoyed with her and then we have to sit there with them when we get home and they're all tense and won't even talk to each other," he replied.

"I actually do," Jessica said.

Both Rachel and Tommy looked over to her as if she were crazy. Jessica looked back to them and shrugged. "I always start to get nervous when we have long periods of time where nothing happens to her. When it finally does, we get it over with, take her home and then have another period of time where everything's okay," she explained.

Tommy considered what she had said. "I can see that," he responded. "Taking the optimistic approach."

"I think it's morbid," Rachel stated and then sat back in her chair.

"Ignore her. She think's everything's normal," Tommy said.

The doctor came out the door and stood there for a minute, taking a deep breath. "I need both Doctor Houses," he called out.

Cuddy stopped dead in her tracks and then nervously turned towards the doctor and hastened over. House slowly stood up and then took his time getting over there to join Cuddy. He knew better than to be in a hurry to hear what ever he was about to tell them.


	12. News

Chapter 10: News

Cuddy stood there, waiting intently. As soon as House came up beside her, she reached over and grabbed his hand. She needed him, and if this was as bad as she was thinking earlier, he wasn't going to be there after this.

"You two have probably noticed her decline in lung capacity. And you are both most likely aware that this was completely expected?" the doctor asked, looking back and forth between the two.

House expressionlessly nodded as Cuddy bit her lip.

The doctor sighed, carefully putting his words together. "You also know that we were wanting to get her a lung transplant?"

They both nodded, just waiting to hear it. Wanting to get this over with already.

"We think that it would be best to take her off the list and just let her go. With the way that her visits have been going, and then today, she doesn't have much longer anyways. She'll most likely make it through this year, probably right up until spring, and towards the end most of her time will be spent either here or not able to do much, getting out of breath just walking around the house," he explained.

House just stared. It was obvious to him that this was all coming up, but there was something about hearing it from someone else. A reassurance of the reality of his own fears. There was nothing to say or do at this moment. Just stare.

Cuddy let out a small gasp. Her hand squeezed House's, as if she knew that he wanted to turn and leave. She needed him there with her now, and something told her that as soon as she let go, he was gone. "Thank you," she softly responded, simply to let him know that they were done.

The doctor took the hint, nodded, and left them.

Cuddy heavily breathed out and ran her hand through her hair, looking down towards the ground. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to cry or throw up, her daughter's time was almost up and there was nothing that she could do about it. Most other problems that she had in her life, she was able to find a solution, find a way to over come it, but this was different. Her biggest problem ever, and there was nothing that she could.

House turned and started to limp back to the waiting room. As soon as Cuddy let go of his hand, he stopped and turned back. "Coming?" he flatly implored. He knew that she was going to make him think about this, deal with this right now, while all he wanted to do was go back home and distract himself, but he couldn't just leave her there.

Cuddy jerked her head up to him. "Yeah," she answered and then regained her composure before joining him back to the waiting room.

Gabrielle sat up and waited for them to come back. What scared her though, was that, not just Jessica was silent while they were gone, but that Tommy and Rachel were also silent. They all knew that something was wrong. She got up and moved over to join the three, figuring that it might be easier for them to explain to everyone at once.

House and Cuddy both got to where the four were sitting and stopped for a moment. "Well, um," Cuddy started, barely able to force the words out.

House sighed. "She's not getting the lung anymore and she has approximately seven months left," he gruffly explained. "Now I'm going home. Anyone can join me," he said and then started towards the door.

Tommy and Jessica looked up and saw the look of utter betrayal and disgust on her face. It was visible that she wanted to strangle him. With that warning of how edgy she was, they got up and started to follow House, although, he didn't seem that much easier to get along with at the moment.

Rachel looked over to Gabrielle. "I'll let you know if he does anything," she assured her and then stood up to leave.

"Thanks," Gabrielle replied. The last time that Elisabeth had a health scare, she explained to Rachel that House can be a little self destructive and told her to call her if he did anything stupid.

Gabrielle then looked up to Cuddy with sympathy. "I can drive you back when ever you're ready," she gently offered.

Cuddy looked down to her. "I forgot to ask whether or not they told her," she told her. It was hard for her to even think straight right now.

Gabrielle just looked to her, nothing to say. "You wanna go see her?" she inquired.

Cuddy nodded. "Yeah," she replied. "Let's go see what room she's in."

oooo

House sat at the kitchen table. Staring. Right now, he didn't feel anything, and that scared him. He should feel something, he was just told that his daughter was going to die soon, but he couldn't. After all of this time of trying to hide the reality of her upcoming death, trying to force himself to forget that with each doctor's visit she was that much closer to the end, that he may have desensitized himself to it all. This was just another trip to the hospital, just more news about her declining health.

Normally, he tried so hard to shield himself from any pain, but now that he didn't feel it, he was scared. Scared, and mad at himself, telling himself that it made him a horrible father.

He was there, he saw her fall down the stairs, he saw her as she was taken into the hospital, and he heard the doctor tell him that she was closer to death. Why no emotion yet? Was he really that bad of a person?

oooo

Rachel, Jessica, and Tommy all sat up in Rachel's room. "What do you think's gonna happen now?" Jessica asked.

Rachel shrugged. "All I know is that Gabi told me that he can go over board when anything happens. She told me to watch him, and watch how many pills he takes," she explained.

Rachel was the only one that Gabrielle had told about his tendencies. She was the oldest one there now, and she figured that she could keep an eye on him every once in a while and let her know when he was starting to slip. So far though, she was still the only one to have seen him fall apart, to be there with him at his worst. That was why she had Rachel watch him though, call her to go talk to him before any of her siblings had to see him like that.

Gabrielle knew very well that Cuddy could handle him. There was no question about that, and when it came to certain things, she was a lot better at it than Gabrielle was, but whenever it involved Elisabeth, she wanted to give Cuddy the chance to just concentrate on her rather than dividing her attention between both Elisabeth and House.

"Over dose? Alcohol poisoning?" Tommy questioned. He knew the sort of things that House did, so it wasn't very hard to know what Gabrielle was talking about.

"I guess," Rachel responded.

Jessica looked up to Rachel. "What do you think is going to happen to Ellie?" she meekly implored. Her eyes starting to fill with tears.

Tommy looked to her as if she were an idiot. "Weren't you there? She's going to die," he harshly answered.

Jessica, now hurt, looked to him. Words were right on her tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to speak. Giving up, she stood up and hurried out of the room.

Rachel quickly shoved Tommy off the edge of the bed, causing him to lay on the floor, propped up on his elbows. "Are you retarded?" she asked. "You know what meant! She wanted to know when she would be coming home, what she would do for the next months. Instead you act like a complete ass and shove her sister's death in her face like she's some moron."

"Oh come on!" Tommy whined as he sat up. "I wasn't shoving anything in her face. We all heard the same thing! How was I supposed to answer that? Besides, we all know that she is dying, there was no surprise in that. I was simply telling her the truth," Tommy argued.

Rachel got up and sighed as she looked down to him. "There's a difference between being honest and being a jerk," she informed him and then left the room.

Tommy rolled his eyes and then got up. "If she can't handle it now, how do you expect her to handle it the day that Ellie does die?" he called out after her.

oooo

Gabrielle took Cuddy out to lunch after checking in on Elisabeth. She was still pretty out of it, so they only said hi to her and then got out of there and let her sleep.

"You want me to stop back and get a few things for you to stay the night at the hospital with her?" Gabrielle offered. The entire lunch had been quiet, except for a few comments here and there.

"I want to stop home first, that way I can get my car and make sure that things are okay over there," Cuddy responded. Her eyes were still distant.

Gabrielle nodded. "Are you doing okay?" she carefully implored.

Cuddy sighed. "I don't know," she confessed.

"I would be a little worried if you were doing just fine," Gabrielle stated.

Cuddy pushed her plate off to the side and leaned in closer to Gabrielle. "Can I confide in you?" she quietly requested.

Gabrielle smirked as she leaned in. "Why would now be different than any other time?" she questioned.

Cuddy ignored the remark and went on. "Everyday, I wake up, work out, shower, cook breakfast, go to work, talk to Greg, tell him no a few times, go to lunch, tell Greg no a few more times, sign some papers, negotiate with Greg, come home, listen to Rachel talk endlessly about her day, find out what Tommy got in trouble for, argue with Greg because he finds enjoyment in Tommy's rebelliousness, check on Ellie, cook dinner, check on Ellie again, relax a little, check on Ellie again, and then finally, get ready and go to bed. That is a typical day for me. I have a hospital to run, a husband who is insane as a person and completely out of his mind as a doctor, a son who doesn't listen to anyone but the man who encourages him, a daughter wanting to hurry to grow up, a daughter who is dying, and a daughter who does have a point when she says that she is a little ignored," she informed her.

"You're stressed."

"I can handle Greg at work, as a matter of fact, I enjoy arguing with him there, talking to him. I enjoy waiting to hear what he wants to do to his patients. I may get irritated, but really, he keeps things from getting boring. I can also handle a twelve year old girl who thinks she should be allowed to do everything that a twenty year old gets to do. We have fun together, I take her out to do all those girly things, talk to her about dating and all of that stuff, telling her to just relax and be patient. Wait to grow up. I can handle a daughter who feels invisible to most of the world. I can even handle a son who is exactly like his father, never listening and doing only as he pleases and calling the rest of the world stupid for not agreeing with him," Cuddy started. "But I don't think that I can handle my little girl dying," she admitted, tears forming in her eyes.

Gabrielle, who had actually been wanting to cry since she had been told what was going on, fought back the tears that were that much closer to falling. "She still has time," she mentioned, trying to help.

"But how long can we keep saying that?" Cuddy implored. "And what happens when that time is out?"

"I don't know," Gabrielle helplessly answered. She wanted to tell her something to help, she wanted to make her feel a little better about the situation, but she couldn't think of anything. There was nothing.

The tears started falling from Cuddy's eyes and she borrowed her face down in her arms that were folded on the table. Gabrielle watched her for a second and then got up and went over to the other side of the table and slid into the booth next to Cuddy, putting her arm around her. "I wish there was a better answer than that," she said.


	13. Fragile

Chapter 12: Fragile

Gabrielle pulled up into the driveway and looked over to Cuddy. She was staring. Hesitating to even realize that the car had stopped and that she could get out and go get her things. "You want me to get your things for you?" she offered.

Cuddy snapped out of her daze and quickly looked over to Gabrielle. "No," she distantly answered. "I need to go see how everyone is doing."

Gabrielle nodded her head and took the keys out of the ignition. She knew what was going on, Cuddy was upset about Elisabeth, angry at House, she didn't want to go in there and see him. That was understandable.

Cuddy looked up to the house and then looked down and started playing with her hands. Right now, after the way that House had left, the blunt way that he had described what was going on, the lack of any emotion, it made her want to strangle him, ask him why he didn't care. That would have been a stupid question though. Even though it seemed as if he couldn't care less, deep down, she knew that he was covering up his feelings. He was hurt just like everyone else. But why did he have to take it out on everyone else with his anger? Why did he have to turn around and hurt those around him?

"You want me to go with you?" Gabrielle offered. As patient as she could be, she still didn't feel good and all she wanted to do was go home and try to forget about all of this. If there was anything that she could do to speed up the process, she was going to do it.

Cuddy looked back over to her. She was about to speak as she considered the idea, but stopped herself. "I'm sorry about all of this," she started. Facing forward again, she shook her head. "You're over here not feeling good and you still haven't reacted to this morning yet. Instead of going home, you're over here dragging me around. How about you just go ahead and leave. I can do this on my own."

Gabrielle looked over as Cuddy started to get out of the car and grabbed her arm. "Hold on," she instructed. "First off, don't be sorry, you've done a lot for me, and today was really nothing. Second, I am the last thing that you have to worry about, so, don't," she explained.

"Thank you," Cuddy smiled to her. "I'm still gonna go ahead on my own though."

"Okay," Gabrielle replied and then put the key in the ignition.

Cuddy got out of the car and started towards the door. Stopping on the porch, she took a second and took a deep breath. Then she forced herself to open the door and walked in, silence.

Instead of saying anything, she just went straight upstairs. As she got up there though, she noticed that it was still completely silent, something that slightly bothered her. She stopped and peeked in on Tommy's room. He wasn't there. She then went over to Jessica's room and knocked on the door.

"Go away you jerk!" Rachel yelled.

Cuddy furrowed her brow in confusion. "It's mom!" she called back.

Rachel quickly jumped up and opened the door. "I'm so sorry," Rachel apologized as she stepped aside and let her walk in.

Cuddy walked in and saw Jessica curled up in the corner of the bottom bed, crying. "Honey," Cuddy gasped as she walked over and sat down beside her. "What happened?" Cuddy implored as she embraced her daughter.

Jessica just burrowed her face in Cuddy's shoulder.

Rachel closed the door and stood there with her arms folded. "Tommy upset her. She was shook up from earlier and asked what was going to happen and he basically just yelled at her, telling her that Ellie is going to die," she explained.

"I see," Cuddy sighed. Comfortingly rubbing her back, Cuddy looked down to Jessica and tried to think of something to tell her. "I know that it hurts, and I wish I could tell you that he's wrong, but she is going to die."

Rachel sniffled, holding back a few tears. "I don't think that's your best mom," she remarked.

"Sometimes the truth is like that," Cuddy said. "There is no good way to phrase it, and there is nothing you can do or say to make it all better."

Cuddy started to wonder where Tommy and House were, even though she was angry at House, she still wanted to see how he was doing. With everyone else so edgy, he had to be just a ticking time bomb.

Cuddy sat there with Jessica until she calmed down and made sure that Rachel was okay before she went to her room and grabbed her things to stay the night with Elisabeth at the hospital. They were only keeping her over night to make sure that it was only her lungs that had caused her to pass out, so she should only be there tonight.

Once ready to go, Cuddy took a small bag and set it down at the bottom of the stairs. She had two more people to see, and her guess was that they were both in the kitchen together.

"Hey," she flatly greeted, learning that she was right.

House and Tommy looked up to her from the table. As she slowly walked into the room, it struck her, the similarities between the two. They both had a blank expression, a frozen stare with their eyes locked on her. Each had this pent up pain, a hurt lingering behind their ice blue eyes.

"Hey," House returned the greeting. "How are you doing?"

"All right," Cuddy coldly answered, keeping her head down to the floor. "How are you two doing?" she implored, looking up to them.

"Just giddy," House sarcastically replied.

Cuddy looked over to Tommy and awaited an answer.

"Fine," Tommy responded, trying to remain stoic.

Great, Cuddy thought to herself. House was self destructive, Gabrielle had the same tendencies, and now Tommy was in the same boat with them. She has seen how bad both House and Gabrielle could get, now, she had to prepare herself for Tommy.

"If either of you two need anything, let me know," she instructed. Turning, she started to walk out of the kitchen, but House caught her and grabbed her hand, causing Cuddy to stop. Looking into each other's eyes, a small smile crept across her face. This was his small, little way of letting her know that he was trying to be there for her. His little apology for earlier. "Thank you," she whispered and then left.

oooo

Gabrielle walked in the door and carelessly tossed her keys down on the table.

"Hey babe," Andy greeted, walking down the stairs. "Jason just went to sleep for his nap," he started, but stopped as soon as he saw Gabrielle standing there, ready to fall apart.

"Gabi?" he questioned, walking towards her.

"Ellie's in the hospital. They say she has about seven months left," she blurted out, and then finally let the tears go.

Andy took her into his arms. "I'm sorry," he said. "She seemed fine this morning though."

"I know," Gabrielle sobbed out, and then pulled back. "But let's be honest. She's never been fine," she stated and then went back into his embrace.

Andy wanted to say something, but he knew her, and he knew that there were times that it was better to just let it go.

"It's not fair," Gabrielle announced. "She does nothing wrong, I screw up most of my life and hurt everyone, and she dies while I live."

Andy sighed. "Don't you dare start that Gabi. You are not a bad person. Ellie doesn't deserve this, but you wouldn't either if you were in this situation," he assured her. "And this is coming from someone who has known you for a long time, so I think that I know what I'm talking about."

Gabrielle was in no mood to argue with him. All she wanted to do was go back to bed. "I guess," she reluctantly agreed and then pulled back and kissed him.

Andy took his thumb and wiped the tears from her face. "You need anything?" he offered.

Gabrielle shook her head. "I just want to go back to bed and sleep for a while," she responded.

"All right," Andy replied and then went ahead and guided her upstairs, with his arm around her.


	14. Acceptance

Chapter 13: Acceptance

_Dying. It changes more than you would think. Six months left. Maybe six if everything goes well. _

_Personally though, it doesn't really change my life. I have been getting myself ready for this time most of my life. Each time anything would happen, there was always the thought in the back of my head, that feeling that those breaths may be my last. I have already accepted death though. It isn't something to be afraid of, it happens to everyone. It's not that depressing either. Really, it has taught me to appreciate things. Every moment, everything I get to do, I truly enjoy it, because I know that it may it may not last. _

_It's my family that it has affected the most, especially my parents. I mean, I thought it was weird to have Tommy and Rachel cease arguing in front of me and have them doing more things for me. Rachel even asked if Donnie and I wanted to go do something with her and Gerald. We are all four going to a dinner and movie next weekend by the way, which is pretty cool. Anyways, Jessica has been even more quiet, which, I really didn't think she could get any quieter. She looks at me differently though, treats me more fragile than I really am. Then, there's mom and dad. Daddy has been taking more pills than normal lately, he's been grumpier, not to me, he bites his tongue when it comes to me. It's everyone else that he is being mean to. He snaps so easily. Mom is stressed out lately. She snaps pretty easily too. Even though she's been better with everyone than daddy has been, I'm worried about her. Last night, she thought that she was alone in her room while everyone else was out. I had just come up stairs and heard her crying. _

_Gabrielle lately has been spending a lot of time with mom and daddy. The last three Sundays, she has been over here. It's like a schedule now. She'll take daddy out somewhere and talk to him alone and then she'll come back and talk to mom. This Saturday though, she is planning on taking me out and helping me with my bucket list. She won't tell me which ones I'll be able to cross off yet though, she wants me to be surprised. _

Elisabeth sat up and set her pen down. Nearly a month had passed since she found out about her time left. One month down, and six to go. Not the best way to put it, but that was really how she thought about it.

Standing up, she sighed and closed her journal. It was almost dinner time and she knew that she would be called down in a few moments, so she figured that she would go ahead and get down there now.

Getting down there, she saw the normal setting. House on the couch, blankly staring. Tommy was next to him, working on homework. Rachel was on the floor, reading a magazine. Jessica off in the corner reading a book. She walked over and sat down in the empty chair.

"Hey Ellie," Rachel greeted, briefly smiling up from her magazine.

Elisabeth waved to her and then looked over to House. He was staring in the direction of the tv, but it wasn't even turned on. Right now was one of those moments that she wished that she could talk. Call over to him, get his attention, and tell him that it was okay. Tell him that she missed the old him.

Instead of staying there and watching him like that though, she got up and headed for the kitchen. Cuddy was standing at the sink, rinsing off lettuce for a salad.

As soon as she heard her enter, Cuddy looked over her shoulder and smiled to her. "Hi sweetie," she said and then turned back to the sink. "I'll talk to you in a second, just let me finish this."

Elisabeth nodded. That was something that kinda bothered her too at times. In order to talk to her, people had to stop what they were doing and completely pay attention to her. The people around her though were happy to do it.

Cuddy finished and then completely turned around. "Anything you wanted to talk about?" she questioned.

Elisabeth smiled and leaned forward. She went ahead and told Cuddy what she felt she needed to tell everyone. She didn't want people to worry about her. She wasn't scared and she wasn't feeling sorry for herself.

Cuddy heavily sighed. Her solemn eyes closely watching her daughter, finding it odd that she found reason to look to her with concern. She walked over and sat down across from her at the table. The same sweet little girl that she had watched grow up for the past twelve years. Her fearless little girl. She had always hated to see others around her scared or upset. She could remember when Elisabeth was only two, and she had just found out that she was pregnant with Tommy.

(_Cuddy was alone with the kids while House called back to the hospital. There wasn't much blood, but just enough to scare her. Quickly, she rushed down the stairs and grabbed her phone from her purse. House was busy and she knew that Gabrielle was just up the road, so she called her to come home and watch the kids while she left. At this time, the living room was child proof and gated in. _

_Trying to calm herself down, she sat down on the couch and watched as Rachel, Elisabeth, and Jessica played some sort of made up game with the giant puzzle pieces that were scattered around on the floor. Though there were still tears forming in her eyes, she forced a smile. _

_Elisabeth looked up to her, and saw something wrong. The tiny girl toddled over and climbed up onto the couch. _

_"Hi honey," Cuddy greeted as cheerfully as she could. She put her arm around the child to support her as she stood up on the couch beside her. _

_Elisabeth hugged her as tightly as she could and then kissed her on the cheek. _

_"Love you too," Cuddy replied, smiling to her._)

She still had no idea as to whether or not Elisabeth actually knew something was wrong, or if it was just a coincidence. Either way, she had always managed to find a way to cheer her up whenever something was wrong. There were times when she would go into the hospital to see Elisabeth, and the second she would walk in, the little girl sit up in the bed, brightly smiling as if nothing were wrong and waved to everyone who came in.

"I really am glad that you're not scared. You never were afraid of anything though, so I guess I should have already known that," Cuddy started.

It was getting hard to look her in the eyes. She felt guilty anymore. Her daughter, her sick daughter and there was nothing that she could do for her. And here she was, sitting here, feeling concerned over her.

Cuddy looked down at the table and took a moment to try and hold herself together. "And I am sorry if we have been bothering you with any new attention or behaviors," she said. It was getting harder and harder to speak. This was the first time that she had actually talked to Elisabeth about this. She was finally taking another step away from the comfort of denial.

"But, you have to remember too, we don't want to lose you. And as selfish as it is, I don't want to lose you," Cuddy barely choked out. She took another moment and tried to calm herself down. "You mean a lot to this family, and we're just trying to cope with the fact that you won't be here anymore."

Elisabeth bit her lip and looked up to Cuddy, feeling bad over even bringing it up. Standing up, she went around the table and stood beside Cuddy, and told her that she was still there before wrapping her arms around her.

Cuddy nodded as she hugged her back. "I know," she responded through tears.

As soon as Cuddy pulled back and went back to preparing dinner, Elisabeth went back out into the living room. She really needed to talk to everyone else, especially House.

She went over and grabbed his hand, waiting for him to respond.

"What?" he mumbled, still staring forward.

Elisabeth then slightly tugged on his arm and finally got him to look over. "What is it?" he asked, more gently this time.

Elisabeth motioned for him to go out on the porch with her. He obliged and they both went outside. Alone. That was the only way that she figured she could talk to him. She told him the same thing that she had told Cuddy, hoping to at least spark something in him.

House just stared to her. "You want me to stop caring that you're dying?" he questioned, more bitter than he had intended.

Elisabeth sighed and shook her head. She explained that she didn't want him destroying himself over her.

House turned away from her and looked out towards the street. "Right. It's just that easy," he sneered. "You basically want me to pretend that there's nothing wrong while everything's crashing down."

Elisabeth looked up to him and waited for him to look back. She told him that she hated the idea of spending her final months with him slowly killing himself before her. It wasn't real obvious, and it wasn't deliberate, but it was happening, and she hated it.

House just looked at her. This was all already hard enough to take, and here she was making him feel even worse. "Look, why don't you just go suck some pity out of the rest of the family and let me do my own damn thing. I don't tell you how to react to death, and you sure as hell have no right to tell me how to take this," he snapped.

Elisabeth stood there and ignored his reaction. Instead, she leaned over and hugged him. She didn't expect him to do anything, but it didn't matter.

House looked down to her and slowly reached for her shoulder. "If you were more of a spoiled brat this might be a bit easier," he informed her.

Elisabeth pulled back and offered him a smile. Her actions now would not change what he was about to do. He was too stubborn for that, but at least she did try. If anything, he would watch himself more around her, which might get him to lay off the pills a tiny bit. Hopefully.


	15. Understanding

Chapter 14: Understanding

Gabrielle sat in the kitchen with House and Cuddy. It was the morning that she was going to help Elisabeth cross off the first item on her list. It was bittersweet as she waited for the kids to get ready to leave.

"You two think that you could let her do stupid things for a while?" Gabrielle questioned as she watched Cuddy prepare herself a cup of coffee.

"We let you do plenty of stupid things," House responded.

Cuddy grabbed her cup and sat down at the table with the two. "I guess at this point there's nothing really to lose," she flatly stated.

Gabrielle sat there for a moment and watched the two, they were distant from each other. They were going to be alone with each other all day, and she was starting to wonder how well that was actually going to work. She looked over to House who was playing with the handle of his cane that was propped up against the side of the table.

"Daddy? You think I could talk to you a moment?" she requested, hoping that he wouldn't argue too much.

House looked up to her with annoyance. He knew what she was about to talk to him about, and that was truly the last thing that he wanted to talk about right now. "All right," he reluctantly sighed. "Let's just get this over with."

Cuddy sat there and watched as the two got up and left the room together. She was supposed to be the one that was talking to him about all of this, she was supposed to be the one to be able to get through to him. Instead Gabrielle was having to drag him outside and force everything out of him. At least maybe after she finally gets to him, he would start opening up to her. Right now they needed each other more than ever and it scared her that they were slowly pushing each other away. It made her wonder what was going to happen when Elisabeth really did die.

Andy walked in and passed Gabrielle as she left with House. He looked over to Cuddy with concern. "Everything okay?" he implored, motioning towards the door.

"I hope so," Cuddy replied. "I think she just wants to tell him to stop being stupid."

Andy laughed. "She tells me that all the time," he remarked, hoping to lighten the mood.

Cuddy softly laughed. "She tells everyone that." She then looked up to him. "Where's Jason at?"

"Rachel and Tommy have him. I think they're trying to brain wash him into something," Andy explained.

Cuddy nodded and then took a sip of her coffee. "Come here," she instructed, motioning for him to sit down.

Andy obliged. "What is it?" he questioned.

Cuddy set her cup down and leaned in a little closer. "How is Gabi really doing? I know when she comes here, she's all smiles and willing to talk to everyone and do anything," she started. "But, I want to know whether or not she's actually okay."

Andy shrugged. He thought back to the day that she had come home crying, but that was the only time that she had really shown any emotion over what was going on. Other than that, they talked about it a few times. "She hasn't really reacted much yet, but she won't go over board this time. I've been keeping an eye on her," he assured her.

"Okay," Cuddy responded, relieved. That was one less person that she had to watch. She was busy enough trying to keep things stable around here, and so far with House, she was failing. She then looked up to him, tired, weary eyes. "Can I trust you with something?"

She could see right away how quickly she could make him feel awkward. Andy wasn't all that close with either of her parents, but she needed someone to talk to that wasn't completely stressed out over what was going on.

"Sure," Andy said, slightly uncomfortable.

Cuddy sat back in her chair. "I'm afraid that Tommy is going to turn out to handle this just like Greg and Gabi," she informed him.

"What exactly do you think he's going to do?" Andy implored. He could understand why she was worried, but he was still a little boy. He couldn't see him going to any extent that he had seen Gabrielle sink to. He had only heard stories from Gabrielle about the things that House has done, but he couldn't see Tommy doing those either.

"I don't know," Cuddy desperately sighed. "That's part of the problem."

Andy allowed himself to relax a little, and sat back. "You try talking to him?" he asked.

Cuddy just looked up to him, her eyebrow raised.

"Right," Andy said. "He's like Gabi, so, he won't talk."

Cuddy nodded. She then looked up to Andy. "Maybe you can talk to him," she suggested.

Andy shrugged. "I guess I could," he answered. "We are going to be on a beach all day without much else to do."

"Thank you," Cuddy said and then stood up. "And please let me know if he says anything that sounds questionable."

"I will," Andy promised.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle stepped out on the porch, leading House. He closed the door behind him and crossed over to lean against the railing. "Yes?" he asked, hoping to speed this up.

Gabrielle folded her arms and smiled to him. "I think you already know," she stated.

House shrugged. "Then I guess we really have nothing to talk about," he responded.

Gabrielle leaned back against the house. "I think you're smarter than that," she told him.

House sighed. "Fine. Tell me that my daughter is dying and that I need to talk to Lisa about it. Please, I'm not aware of what's going on," he sneered.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Is it possible that you might just need her as much as she needs you?" Gabrielle implored.

"Is it possible that you might be sticking your nose somewhere that it doesn't belong?" he mocked her.

Gabrielle stood up and stepped closer to House. "Come on daddy, I'm worried about you, and I should know when to worry. I do basically the same thing you do. Denial, isolation, and then self destruction," she explained.

"I'm still here," House announced. "I am here, helping to take care of my dying daughter."

Gabrielle just stared to him, wondering how long he was going to keep this up.

"I personally fail to see how I am denying the situation and isolating myself," he said.

"Just think about this," Gabrielle started as she grabbed his arm. "As bad as you feel about all of this. Everything that you are feeling, Lisa feels it too. She just has a different way of dealing with it. A more rational way."

House narrowed his eyes on her. "I thought you were smarter than that," he responded. "Crying about something that you can't change and dwelling on it is not rational. If anything it's just plain delusional to think that you're helping yourself that way."

"It's rational because she doesn't hold it all in until she does something stupid enough to risk her life on something that she can't do anything about, especially while everyone else needs you," Gabrielle sternly argued.

She saw something in his eyes, something changed. "Everyone here is going to be a wreck in about six months, and they are going to need you. You are going to need Lisa, and she is going to need you, and your children are going to need the both of you. If you don't want to lose everything, I would seriously consider changing the way that you are dealing with this. Lisa isn't like me. She won't come back to you no matter what. To me, you could be a murderer and I would still want you in my life. Lisa will let you get away with hell and will tolerate a lot of crap from you, but I guarantee you that she does have a limit."

"You saying that you love me more?" he snarkily remarked, trying to convince himself that everything she just said was wrong.

"I'm saying that you can abuse me more because I've lived with it my entire life. I think she was a bit luckier and expects, and needs a little more from you," Gabrielle answered.

House just blankly stared to her. "Fine," he said and then grabbed his cane and went back into the house.

Gabrielle stood there and watched him, hoping that she did get through to him, just a little bit.

ooo

Everyone got out of the car. Elisabeth stepped out and gazed out to the ocean. It was cool outside, and there was a breeze, but she knew what Gabrielle was going to have her do today.

"Come here!" Gabrielle called out to her from behind the trunk.

Elisabeth obeyed her and went to join her. She saw Gabrielle holding up a lime green one piece bathing suit with a strap that only went over the right shoulder. It was her favorite color, and she did like the style of it. Teasingly though, she asked Gabrielle if she thought that she wasn't good looking enough to pull off a two piece.

Gabrielle laughed and handed her the bathing suit. "Just change and get your ass in that water. Right now is as warm as it's going to get today so I would hurry up if I were you," she told her.

Elisabeth smiled and accepted the gift. She knew that she was about to freeze, but she also knew that this would be her last chance, and there was no way that she was about to pass it up. Not now, it was too late to be missing opportunities and forming regrets.

"Good," Gabrielle said and then watched her get back into the car.

While Gabrielle was over talking to Elisabeth, Andy took Jason over to Rachel and Jessica as the two stood there, watching the ocean. "You two think you can show Jason how to build a sand castle?" he questioned.

"Sure," Rachel answered.

Jessica leaned down and grabbed the little boy's hand. "Come here with us," she instructed. They both lead the little boy a little further away from the car and more towards the ocean where the sand was more wet.

Andy then looked over towards Tommy. He was off by himself, sitting on the sand further down the beach, away from everyone else. Expressionlessly staring out towards the ocean. He knew what Cuddy wanted him to do for her, and he really did want to help, but it just didn't feel right. Either way though, he took a deep breath and then forced himself to walk over to him.

"So, Tommy," he uncomfortably started.

"What is it?" Tommy asked, not moving to look to him.

"I just wanted to see how things were going with you. You know, see how you were handling everything," Andy explained.

Tommy looked over to him. "I may be a kid, but I'm not that stupid. Someone's worried about me and wanted you to try and get something out of me," he stated.

"Why do you say that?" Andy implored.

"We talk, but we never talk about anything like that. You were one of the only people that seemed to understand that I don't like discussing my feelings. Mom was worried about me though, and something tells me that Gabi's probably worried too. Both people that you have talked to today," Tommy explained.

"Only because they care about you, and don't want you doing anything stupid," Andy replied. "Your mom is a little stressed out, and she has seen your dad and Gabrielle both act stupidly after certain things and she just doesn't want you to do the same."

"What? The pills? I don't have any pills that I could pop," Tommy defensively argued.

"Maybe you had better just talk to Gabi. I don't think that she would be too bothered if you just waited for her," Andy suggested. He knew that she could handle the conversation better, and she could give him examples. She could talk to him on a more personal level.

"That's what I thought," Tommy informed him.

Rachel and Jessica sat with Jason as they tried to build a sand castle with him. While Rachel attempted to form a tower while Jessica sat Jason on her lap.

"Stop trying to eat the sand," Jessica ordered, grabbing his sand filled hand and forcing it away from his mouth.

"I don't think that he cares," Rachel stated. She sat back and smiled at her tower.

Before anything could be added to the sand, Jason took his hand and destroyed it. "Look!" he joyfully laughed. "All gone."

Rachel slowly looked from the pile of sand, up to Jason and glared to him in disbelief. "Yes, yes it is all gone," she agreed with disappointment.

Gabrielle walked pass the three along with Elisabeth, who was already starting to get cold. "Sorry about your masterpiece there," Gabrielle apologized.

Rachel glared up to her. "You don't understand!" she called out to her.

Gabrielle just laughed as she and Elisabeth made their way over to the edge of the ocean. "Now," Gabrielle said. "Here is your chance."

Elisabeth looked at the water for a moment and then shrugged. There was a towel waiting for her, and a blanket for when she got changed back into her clothes.

Without any more hesitation, she went ahead and got into the water. It was freezing, but it was only going to get colder for a while. By the time that it would start warming up in the Spring, it would be too late.

Gabrielle started to laugh as Elisabeth attempted to get used to the water. "A little cold there?" she questioned.

Andy walked over and wrapped his arm around Gabrielle. "You have a minute?" he requested.

"Yeah, what is it?" she replied, picking up on his tone of concern.

"I think you should go over and talk to Tommy. Lisa told me that he's starting to get her nervous," he explained.

Gabrielle nodded. "I see. Daddy's little shadow is starting to pick up on his ways?" she clarified.

"That's it," Andy answered.

Gabrielle took one last look over to Elisabeth and then started towards Tommy. She knew that he would handle things just like House, he did just about everything else like he did.

"I was waiting for you," Tommy announced as soon as he noticed her coming towards him.

"I'm sure you were. I saw you talking to Andy earlier," she responded as she sat down beside him.

"I want to let you know before you even try this. I have nothing to talk about," Tommy stubbornly stated.

Gabrielle nodded. "That's fine," she replied. "I have something to tell you though, and think you should really listen to this."

Tommy looked up to her with some interest. "Go for it," he announced.

Gabrielle sighed. "You seem to handle things like daddy and I do. That's not a good thing. When ever anything goes wrong, we have the tendency to pretend that there's nothing wrong, find a way to distract ourselves from what's going on. That's all fine and dandy in the beginning, but if you let it go too long, things happen. You can do what I did, and become wreckless, and stop caring about things and do what ever it takes to just forget about the problem. Or, you can do what daddy does and do everything in your power to make yourself numb. Do anything to erase the pain. Either way, it can destroy you. If you're not careful you can end up doing something really stupid, even costing yourself your own life," she explained.

Tommy looked up to her. "Yeah?" he asked, not really understanding how bad things could get.

"I wouldn't lie about that," she assured him.

"What's the most stupid thing you've done?" he implored.

Gabrielle thought for moment. How much did she really want to share with a little kid. He did seem more mature than most kids. These were still part of those things that she wanted to keep to herself though. Then again, might convince him to handle things a little better. After she mentally argued with herself, she decided to go ahead and tell him. "You promise you won't share this with your sisters?" she asked.

Tommy nodded, intently waiting for her to tell him.

"I tried to kill myself. I kept to myself when my aunt gave me a letter, stating that I was part of the reason that my mom had wanted to kill herself at one time while she was drinking. After I read that letter, I hid in my room and then later on, I went and found daddy's pills and tried to kill myself," Gabrielle told him. "I don't want you to try anything like. Ever," she sternly warned.

"I got it," Tommy answered.

"Good, because I think we all might just love you," Gabrielle said.

ooo

House limped through the living room on his way to go upstairs. He stopped though as soon as he saw Cuddy sitting on the couch. Gabrielle's words were going through his head. Although he had been trying to convince himself that she was wrong, he knew that she was right. He could screw up everything that he had if he continued to push Cuddy away.

This was his chance to try and save everything. Carefully, he went and joined her on the couch. "So, the kids are gone," he awkwardly started.

Cuddy looked up and smirked to him. "Sorry Greg, I'm just not in the mood right now," she replied.

Greg sighed. "If you would get your mind out of the gutter, I would be asking you how you are doing right now," he stated.

Cuddy shrugged. "I'm okay," she answered. "Not the best right now, but I'm okay." Her eyes then studied him, trying to see how he was doing before she asked him the same question. "You've been awful quiet lately," she started.

"Not much to say," he responded.

"Not much to say? Or not much that you want to say?" she asked.

House looked down to her. There was a lot that he didn't want to admit right now. There was a lot going on that he wished wasn't real, but he wasn't about to unload all of that on her. "There is nothing to say," he flatly answered. "She's dying and there's nothing we can do about it."

Cuddy's expression softened. "You find nothing wrong with that?" she asked, fully knowing that he did.

"Everything's wrong with that, but I can't fix it," he gruffly explained.

Cuddy sat back in the couch and sighed. "I wish you could," she said.

House looked over and put his arm around her, pulling her closer to him. "So do I," he admitted. "Every damn day."

"Sometimes I wish that she wasn't sick," Cuddy started with tears forming

Now perplexed, House looked down to her. He wanted to talk, but he figured that he had better just let her go.

"And then sometimes, only sometimes, I wonder what it would have been like if she wouldn't have been born. What it would have been like without having to constantly worry, without having to always go to the hospital, wondering whether or not she'll make it. Constantly hearing how she has less and less time. Growing attached to someone that you're just going to lose within a short amount of time," she confessed and then met his eyes with hers. Tears falling down her cheeks. "And right now, we would not be going through this."

House took his other arm and embraced her. That feeling was one that he had a few times, it was the same thing that he and Gabrielle had discussed years back when Elisabeth was a baby.

"I am the worst mother ever. I love Elisabeth, I really do, and I am going to hate losing her, but there are times that I wish that none of us had to go through this and the easiest way for me to picture that is without Elisabeth being here," she admitted.

"Yes, you're clearly a complete failure because you hate suffering," House remarked.

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "I think you missed the point."

"No I didn't. You hate seeing your little girl suffer. If she wasn't here, she wouldn't be suffering," he explained.

"She wouldn't be suffering if she wasn't sick," Cuddy stated.

"Since she's always been sick, you can't think of her as healthy," House explained. "You don't know what she would sound like if she could talk and you don't know what she would do if she could breathe better."

Cuddy just sighed and rested her head on his chest. She didn't want to talk anymore, all she wanted to do was just try and forget. It was impossible for her, but she at least wanted to try.

House started gently rubbing her back. "I'm pretty sure that she's aware that you love her," he assured her. Out of everything that there was for her to worry about the last thing that he wanted her stressing out over was whether or not she had been a good mother to Elisabeth.

The one that he worried about was him. Had he been there for Elisabeth? When she was in the hospital or even just really sick, he would freak out, he would get away from the situation to try and avoid seeing what was right there. Within all the selfishness, did Elisabeth see that he was gone all those times? Did she feel betrayed by that? Hurt?

Every time, he had always told himself that next time would be different, that he would be there. Each time though, he failed. He would get scared, scared of seeing her sick, scared of losing her.

House was brought back to reality when he felt Cuddy reach up and comfortingly grab his shoulder. Looking down at her, he saw that she was staring forward, with the same blank look. He didn't say anything to her. Instead, he planted a small kiss on the top of her head and then lead his head back and closed his eyes.


	16. Left Alone

Chapter 15: Left Alone

House sat at his desk while his team stood around before him. Chase and Foreman were still with House, along with two new people, Reynolds and Morgan. Doctor Reynolds was a middle aged man, medium built, and in good shape. He had dark brown hair that was parted off to the side, hazel eyes, and grin that never seemed to leave his face. This time around, Reynolds was the one with the conscience, the one who usually urged House to do the right thing and tell the truth. On the other hand, there was Morgan. She was a younger woman, fresh out of residency. She herself had no regards for morals. She figured that as long as they got the patient better, everything was fair game. She was a petite blonde, slender body, piercing green eyes, her face making her seem like an innocent young girl, and she knew exactly how to use it to keep from getting into trouble.

House admired her. This woman knew how to lie, how to cheat, and most importantly, how to not get caught. Better yet, she was always quiet, so you never knew quite what was going on in her mind. She could be the one planing something, and no one would ever know. He needed that on his team, as far as he was concerned.

"Would any of you like to explain why the hell you find it necessary to gather here before me?" House asked, keeping his attention on the game that he was playing on his computer.

"We don't have anything better to do," Morgan softly answered.

House paused his game and turned to look at the group. "Well, since the four of you are still five years old, I'll tell you exactly what you're going to do. Foreman, you go down to the ER and see if there's something there, and then Chase, you go down to Cuddy and ask her if she has anything. Then you two," he said, stopping on Reynolds and Morgan. He opened his desk drawer and searched through it for a moment and then pulled out an old magazine. "This is my daughter's, she left it here a while ago. Take page twenty nine and arrange it into a creative ransom note," he instructed.

No one moved as he held the magazine out. "What?" he asked, seeing the confused looks from everyone. "Are all of you too stupid to understand what I said?"

Chase and Foreman exchanged looks and left the room, leaving Reynolds and Morgan. Reynolds, continued to look at the man as if he were insane while Morgan smiled and made her way to his desk. "I guess I'll do it," she offered.

House watched as Morgan took the magazine off to the conference room and then looked over to Reynolds. "Too good to share an assignment?" he questioned.

"No," Reynolds quickly answered. "I just think," he started.

"There!" House exclaimed. "You're doing that too much. Now go and join Morgan before I find something worse for you to be doing right now," he ordered.

Reynolds sighed and swallowed his pride. Although he knew that he could be doing something more productive, something more useful, he went along with it and left to go with Morgan. This was what he was told to do, so he did it.

"God you need to grow a pair," House mentioned as Reynolds opened the door, causing him to stop.

"What?"

House stood up and started for the door. "You heard me. You were also just there when you couldn't even stand up for yourself when you wanted to tell me that having you cut and paste things out of a magazine was ridiculous. You do the same thing when I question you on patients," he told him, stopping right before he left. "I know you can think on your own, I just have yet to see it," he said and then left.

ooo

"How could there be nothing?" Chase implored, standing in the middle of Cuddy's office.

Cuddy sighed as she searched through her filing cabinet. "I'm sorry that no one is dying of something interesting at the moment," she responded.

Chase looked over and saw a file laying on her desk. "You mind if I check this one?" he asked, moving towards it. "We're so bored right now, I'm sure that we'll accept just about anything."

Cuddy wheeled around and froze as she watched him pick up the file and read it. "That one's reserved for another doctor," she informed him. Her eyes closely watching his expression as he ignored her and went on to read the file. She had considered going over and snatching the file from him, but that would only cause a conversation that she did not want to have and unneeded suspicions. Besides, she was sure that he would agree with her as soon as he saw the case.

Chase scanned through the file and then looked up to her. "A fifteen year old girl suddenly has decreased lung capacity. No signs of infection, no history of asthma, no nerve problems," he started.

Cuddy stood there, placing her hands on her hips, waiting for him to say something. Her eyes glued to him. Once the silence had lasted too long, she went ahead and dropped her arms as she headed over and too the file back. "You really think that House could handle this one right now?" she asked. Yes, this was typically the kind of thing that she would save for him, but not this one. Not now.

Chase wanted badly to tell her that she couldn't coddle him. She could never protect him from what was going on with Elisabeth, but at the same time, their daughter was dying. He might have been a little irritated, but he wasn't about to rip her head off over it. "Yeah, I guess so," he replied, disappointed.

"I just don't want a patient to have to suffer because House decides to lose it over on person. If he does solve this young girl's case, he might lose it and try to help Elisabeth. He's just too fragile right now," Cuddy explained. "As soon as something else comes in though, I promise, you can have it."

"All right," Chase responded and then left the room.

Cuddy stood there and looked down at the file, studying it. She felt bad about restricting the patients that House could have, but at the same time, she felt that she had to look out for him. As bad as she felt knowing that he would push her away, leave her when she needed him, she still had to look out for him. She loved him and wasn't about to sit there and watch him fall apart before anything even happens. She needed him around, and so did the kids. Breaking him before hand would only hurt everyone around him.

ooo

That night, Cuddy sat on the edge of her bed, with Elisabeth sitting in front of her. She was fixing her hair for her. "Are you excited for tonight?" Cuddy implored, brushing the young girl's hair back.

Elisabeth smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She was getting to go out on a date, something that she honestly thought she would never get to do. That was also something on her list, to get her first kiss. That might not happen tonight, and she was okay with that, but this was a step towards getting kissed.

Cuddy smiled and pulled back half of her hair. "You like that?" she questioned.

Elisabeth looked at herself in the mirror and nodded. It was neater than she had ever been able to get it. She then turned and watched as Cuddy went and grabbed her make up. This one really surprised her. Cuddy spent most of her time telling Rachel, her older sister, that she could not use make up yet, not until she was older.

"I'm not going to use much, just a tiny bit," Cuddy assured her.

Elisabeth sat still as Cuddy applied a little bit of eye liner, some mascara, and light lip gloss. Nothing too noticeable, but it did make a little bit of a difference. "And what do you think of that?" Cuddy inquired, standing back up off the bed.

Elisabeth got up and really studied herself in the mirror. With a huge smile on her face, she turned back and hugged Cuddy. When she pulled back, Elisabeth reached up and kissed her on the cheek.

"You're welcome," Cuddy replied. Looking at her little girl, she looked so grown up. For the first time, she had noticed how much she had grown up, she had recognized that she did have the chance to grow up a little bit, and was grateful for that. She just wished though, that she had the chance to grow up completely. At least make it to her teenage years.

Rachel walked into the room carrying a necklace, a silver chain with a small red rose on it, one that matched the red sweater dress that Elisabeth was wearing. "You wanna borrow this?" Rachel offered.

Elisabeth nodded and then took the necklace and put it on herself. As Rachel stood there, her mouth fell open in shock. "You're wearing make up!" she accused.

Elisabeth stuck her tongue out at Rachel and then told her that's one of the advantages of being ill, she gets to break all the rules.

Rachel huffed and rolled her eyes. "Well, it looks cute on you. Congratulations," she said and then left the room to go continue getting ready.

Elisabeth went back to looking at herself in the mirror. This was the first time that she had gotten dressed up like this. There was a few years ago for Gabrielle's wedding, but that wasn't the same. This was for a boy. This was for a date. For Gabrielle's wedding she wore a light blue strapless gown that was picked out for her, and her hair style was picked out for her. The only thing she got to choose was her shoes. Now, she got to pick what she wore, and how she looked.

"I think it's about time you two headed over to Gerald's house," Cuddy announced.

Elisabeth took one last glance at herself int he mirror and then headed downstairs, leaving Cuddy there alone in the bedroom. She was on her way out, but stopped as soon as she stepped on a ribbon, the blue ribbon that ELisabeth used all the time to pull her hair back with. Slowly, she picked it up off the floor and played with it between her fingers. Just one simple little thing that would always remind her of the little girl.

After she had examined the item, she set it on her dresser and headed down the stairs to send Rachel and Elisabeth off across the street.

Downstairs, House stood there, watching the two girls as they stood at the door, double checking their appearances and grabbing their things. "You know the rules right? Always say no, the earlier you get home the better, but no later than ten. If anything happens, you call me right away. If either of those boys makes you mad, you call me. If either of those boys make you uncomfortable, you call me. If either of those boys slightly annoys you, you call me," he instructed. Watching them go out, was not what he wanted to do, but at the same time, he couldn't tell them not to.

"And you thought that I was over protective," Cuddy remarked as she got to the bottom step.

"It's fine," Rachel replied and then turned and said good bye to each of them.

Elisabeth waved to Cuddy and then went up to House and gave him a hug and kiss. She thanked both of them before leaving.

The door closed, and the girls were no longer in their sight. Cuddy looked over to House and saw him just watching the door. "I remember when they were still babies," Cuddy mentioned and then looked down to the floor. It was just weird to see them going out, after so many things had happened around there, one normal thing was happening, and it was bittersweet.

"I think most of us remember how things were when Elisabeth was a baby," House responded and then turned and limped towards the kitchen. Right now, he was in no mood to sit there and listen to Cuddy talk about Elisabeth and how she used to be and what was going to happen. He knew that she had been thinking about her a little more than usual lately, and he just couldn't deal with the constant reminders.

ooo

Cuddy sat by herself in the kitchen. The case, the one that should have gone to House, was still on her mind. In a way, she felt like she was betraying him. She was lying to him and keeping secrets. It was really her choice though, there was no reason why she should feel bad. She did though. And with the way that House had been acting lately, she would have thought that she would feel decent about it, feel like she was doing him a favor, feel good about it. Maybe there was a reason that she felt so bad about it, maybe there was some sort of selfishness behind it all. The fact that she knew she would be losing House along with her daughter, she wanted to hold onto him as long as she could, she wanted him to be there up until he absolutely felt that he had to run away. At the hospital, she was able to convince herself that it was for her family, and for the patients that he would be trying to help, but the more she thought about it, this was all for her. She was scared, and hurt, and she needed someone that kept pushing her away.

While she was sitting there, she could feel herself getting sick. The occasional flare up, of course at one of the worst times. Her temperature was starting to spike, and the dull pain in her abdomen was gradually getting sharper. While it was still somewhat manageable, she carefully stood up and headed for the doorway. House was out in the living room, so that was as far as she had to make it.

Holding onto the table, she steadied herself and cautiously started towards the doorway. The room was beginning to spin, so she planted her hand onto the wall beside her and used it to get her to the doorway. "Greg?" she called out, leaning against the door frame.

House turned back in the chair and widened his eyes as soon as he saw her. He didn't have to ask though. He stood up and grabbed her arms, lifting her up and supporting her as he walked her over to the couch. He sat down on the couch and helped her to sit down next to him. Once he spotted his coffee on the table, he leaned over and grabbed it to pass over to Cuddy and then took out one of his Vicodin for her. "There you go," he stated, holding out his hand.

Cuddy took the pill and swallowed it with the coffee. "Thank you," she said, setting the cup back down on the table.

House sat back and grabbed the pillow, placing it on his lap so that she could lay down on his more comfortably. Once she did lay down, resting her head on the pillow in his lap, he started rubbing her side, trying to get her to calm down and go to sleep.

_( Cuddy stood there in her office, and just looked up to see House emotionlessly standing there. Sighing, she left the room. House just stood there and stared for a moment. _

_Cuddy walked down the hall and found Gabrielle. She was fifteen years old, her now sandy blonde hair was pink. She was sitting there, against the wall and Cuddy sat down beside her. "Sorry about what your father said back there. I guess I should have emphasized jerk before you met him." _

_Gabrielle looked up and wiped her tears as she began to softly smile. "It's alright. He's a doctor, he deals with death everyday. Why should he react any differently to this?" _

_Cuddy just raised her eyebrows. "So, he didn't offend you in any way?" she asked. _

_"No. If anything I thought that you would be offended." Gabrielle stood up and made sure that she was pulled back together. "I mean, it was your daughter that died." She looked down and saw the confusion written on Cuddy's face and softly laughed. "I know you think I'm crazy right now, but really, it doesn't matter. Elisabeth was going to die whether or not he was there."_

_Gabrielle sympathetically looked down to Cuddy who was still down on the floor and held her hand out. "Let's go back," she said as she helped her up. _

_"Are we going back to see Greg?" Cuddy asked as they started walking back down the hall towards her office. _

_Gabrielle stopped and looked to her as if she were completely out of her mind. After a minute though, that very expression turned to one of pity. "You really don't know?" she questioned. _

_Cuddy remained stoic as she awaited her answer. _

_"He's not here," Gabrielle informed her. "He left. He freaked out and just couldn't take it anymore, so he abandoned you. After that, I broke down and my marriage to Andy is starting to fall apart because I was too busy trying to keep you two together. You have started ignoring the other kids, so Rachel is acting out, you know, resorting to the stuff I used to do like drinking, Jessica is depressed and never leaves her room, and finally, Tommy is taking daddy's left over pills that he neglected to take with him."_

_Cuddy gasped, she had nothing to say. There was nothing to say. Instead, she turned to run, but saw a casket with Elisabeth laying in it, Dead. Pale. _

_Looking around, she was all alone. She reluctantly stepped up to the coffin and peeked in. One of her tear drops fell off her cheek and landed on Elisabeth's face, making it look like it was Elisabeth who was crying. _

_Cuddy covered her face with her hands and fell to the ground, sobbing. "No!" she cried out.) _

Cuddy's eyes opened, and looked around the room. She was in her living room. Good. Right after that, she discovered that she had been crying, and then it hit her, House had been trying to talk to her the entire time.

"Lisa?" he tried again.

Cuddy slightly trend and looked up to him. "Yeah?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"Do you need another pill?" he offered, wondering how bad she was hurting.

Cuddy stared up into his eyes, pleading with him. Her lip was quivering. "Don't leave me," she softly cried out and then turned to face him and wrapped her arms around his waist. His face was buried in his shirt, her tears leaving wet spots.

House looked down to her with confusion and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her. It had to have been a bad dream, most likely something format he Vicodin, he figured.


	17. Everybody Lies part 1

Chapter 16: Everybody Lies (part 1)

Tommy walked past Jessica and Elisabeth's room and spotted Jessica, sitting at the window. Deciding that she wouldn't care since the door was open, he walked over and stood behind her, looking over her shoulder at the view out in the driveway. He could see Rachel and Gerald standing together out by the sidewalk, while Elisabeth and Donnie stood a little bit closer to the house.

"Why do you find it necessary to punish yourself by watching the two?" Tommy implored.

"Just curious," Jessica answered without taking her eyes off her sister and Donnie. She truly was interested in seeing how things went between them. It might have hurt her to see them together, but it would bother her more to see them apart.

Tommy shrugged and went ahead and joined her. "Anything exciting going on?"

Jessica shook her head. "No. All they've done so far is just stand there and talk," she replied.

Tommy looked down to her for a moment and then looked back out the window. "Happy about that?" he questioned.

"I don't know," she confessed. It was all confusing to her. Yes, she did want Elisabeth to enjoy herself and she wanted her to have want ever she wanted. On the other hand, this was the boy she liked. This was the one person that she wanted to notice her above everyone else. She had cared about what this boy thought and cared about how she was around him.

ooo

Rachel and Gerald stood off by themselves as they said goodbye to each other.

Gerald stood awkwardly as he faced Rachel. This was his first time going out with a girl and he was a little nervous. "See you Monday?" he asked, and then immediately hated himself for not thinking of something better to say when he saw Rachel's smile fade a little.

"Of course," Rachel replied, wondering if he was going to say anything else. She was expecting something better than that.

"All right then. See ya," Gerald said and then hurried off across the street. He hated walking off real quick like that and leaving, but he wanted to get home before he said anything else to embarrass himself.

"Bye," Rachel called out to him, her eyes following him with concern. She then turned towards the house and started walking. "And the romance is dead," she muttered to herself.

Meanwhile, Donnie and Elisabeth were doing the same thing in the driveway. "Did you have fun tonight?" Donnie implored.

Elisabeth smiled to him and nodded. This was one of the best nights that she had in a while. It was weird, lately, everyone had been rushing around and akin sure that she was enjoying every single minute, when all they did tonight was sit together and talk, and she loved it.

Donnie nervously laughed. "Good, because I did too," he responded.

Elisabeth held her finger up, telling him to wait a moment as she picked up her purse and started to dig through it. She grabbed onto her pad and pen and pulled it out.

Donnie held up his hand. Right now, he didn't want to sit there and wait for her to write everything down, he wanted to just ask simple questions and get home. He enjoyed being with her, but he too had been nervous all night, and getting home would help a lot. "You don't have to write down things anymore, I just have one yes or no question," he explained.

Elisabeth went ahead and put the paper and pen back into her purse and waited for him to speak. She could see that he was nervous, and found it to be cute.

"Do you want to do this again?" Donnie offered.

Elisabeth's smile grew even bigger as she nodded. There was no way that she could turn that down.

"Good," Donnie nearly sighed out in relief. He then looked up to her and got himself ready again. "And another question, is your birthday by any chance coming up soon?"

Elisabeth's smile slightly faded as she shook her head. No, her birthday was not coming up, ever again. Her birthday was at the end of August and she only had until March. She had been keeping her short expectancy a secret from everyone else. That just wasn't something that she wanted to talk about with other kids. Besides, she didn't want the pity or special attention from everyone else, to be suddenly liked by the people that usually ignored her. She didn't need that.

Donnie looked to her disappointment. "Oh, I was just wondering. I had an idea of something that we can do. My Uncle has a boat that we take out sometimes. I guess we would have to wait anyways, he usually bring the boat in in October and doesn't take it back out until June. I just thought maybe if it was within the next couple of weekends," he informed her.

Elisabeth shrugged, fighting to hold on to her smile. This was the first time that it had really hit her, she knew that she would never be able to take that offer. She was going to die in six months and she wouldn't be able to go out on the boat. She wouldn't be able to go to any dances with him, or go to the beach with him. Someone wanted to make plans with her, and she couldn't.

Donnie could see that she felt bad, and decided that it was time for him to go. "Anyways, good night," he said, offering a small smile.

Elisabeth waved to him. As he started to walk away though, Elisabeth went and grabbed his wrist, causing him to turn around. Once he stood there, looking to her, she closed the space between them and kissed him on the lips. Once she pulled back, she laughed at his wide eyed expression. She then waved to him again and turned and walked towards the house.

"How did it go?" Cuddy asked as soon as Elisabeth closed the door behind her.

Elisabeth turned and saw House and Cuddy sitting on the couch together and went to join them in the living room. She told them both that she had a good time.

"How good?" House questioned.

Elisabeth laughed and replied that it was just good, not too good.

"Good," House stated.

Cuddy rolled her eyes at him and then turned to attention back to Elisabeth. "Anyways, I'm glad that you enjoyed yourself," she said.

Elisabeth nodded and then headed upstairs to go get ready for bed. The first thing she did was head into the bathroom to wash her face and all of that before bed.

Once she was in the room, she closed the door and locked it. Now, she was alone. Standing in front of the sink, she looked up and solemnly stared at her reflection, wanting badly to tell Donnie that she could go out on the boat with him, to be able to tell Gabrielle that she could meet her new niece or nephew, to see the day when Rachel finally does get to wear make up, to be there when Jessica finally gets the attention that she wants, and see Tommy when he gets older and more creative and how much trouble he'll get into. All the sudden, she was really thinking about all of this, and it was just now hitting her now, how much she will be missing out on. She always knew that she would miss out on a lot, but something changed.

She lowered her head as the tears began falling. Se wanted so badly to just be able to have a few more years, she knew though, she would always just want a few more years. There was nothing she could do about it though, so it didn't really matter. Picking her head back up, she took another look at herself. She didn't want to die.

ooo

Jessica sat up in her bed, processing what she had seen earlier. They kissed. She wasn't mad at Elisabeth, she wasn't mad at anyone. She was jealous though. In a way, she felt that that should have been her out there kissing him. That should be her getting to go to dinner with him.

As soon as Elisabeth slowly entered the room, she looked over to her and hid the fact that she had been up there feeling bad "So, did you have a good time?" Jessica implored, forcing a smile.

Elisabeth looked up to her and smiled.

"Good," Jessica replied.

Elisabeth watched her for a moment. She was acting distant, distracted. The smile was fake. She clapped to get her attention and then asked her if there was anything wrong.

"No," Jessica quickly answered.

Elisabeth just looked down and slightly nodded to herself. She then told Jessica to let her know if there was anything that she could do for her.

It was apparent to Jessica that she was not about to let it go. "It's nothing. I just got in a fight with one of my friends. It was over something stupid," she lied.

Elisabeth knew right away that she was lying to her. It had to be that she was out with Donnie. That was the only thing that was going on tonight that would get to her. That was also the only thing that she would feel that she would have to lie to her about. She decided to tell her that maybe when Jessica and Donnie get to know each other a little better, that maybe she could be the one to go out on his boat with him.

Jessica looked to her with confusion. The boat part threw her off, but she ignored it. "Trust me, I don't even think he knows I'm here," she told her.

Elisabeth shrugged. Even if he didn't notice her now, she thought maybe she could start having him come over here to hang out, and she could introduce the two. That way, in a few months, they might be together, instead of her and him.

"Besides, he's with you, and no matter what you think, I don't wanna change that," Jessica assured her.

Elisabeth nodded. There was her proof, she was feeling guilty. It was definitely jealousy over her and Donnie. Right now, she did feel bad, but at the same time, she had just had a great time with him, and she was only going to be around for a short time, so she wanted to keep him for now. She wanted to be the one with him, and then Jessica could try going out with him.

ooo

Gabrielle briefly stepped outside and grabbed the mail. "You think we got anything?" she asked Jason, who was in his play pen.

She smiled at the little boy as he ignored her for the toys in front of him. She then started going through the envelopes, spotting the usual bills and ads. Then, there was something that made her stop.

"What the hell is this?" Gabrielle softly questioned to herself. There was an envelope addressed to Andy from Missy. Instead of getting herself worked up right away, she slid the letter back into the pile and left it on the table, thinking maybe Andy could open it when he got home and show her what it was.

ooo

"Hey! I think there's something here that you could help me with!" Klein called out down the hall as soon as he saw House making his way towards his office.

"Really? I don't," House replied without even stopping.

The doctor caught up to him and held the file up. "Come on, this seems more like something that you would get. I just want an opinion on something while I wait for one for one of the test results," he requested. "Fifteen year old girl. Decreased lung capacity. No fluids, no infections, and no muscle damage or nerve damage," he explained.

House stopped and looked over to him. Something was wrong here, this was a case that he should have gotten. He and his team had been bored for the past few days, and he could tell that Klein had just received this patient. There was no real reason as to why this wasn't handed to him. "You said no fluids, those aren't the only things that can build up in the lung cavities," he stated, covering up the fact that he was getting irritated with Cuddy.

"We did find some sort of substance in there, that's what I'm having checked right now," Klein responded.

"Let me know what it is when you find out," House instructed and then headed straight fro Wilson's office and headed straight in. "You ever get that feeling that someone has been lying to you, and not very well?"

Wilson quickly looked up to him. "What do you mean?" he implored.

House closed the door behind him and approached the desk. "Doctor Klein out there, has a case that I should have gotten. He even said that it was something I should've gotten. Now after a few days of me and my team just sitting there bored, don't you think that anything would have been handed us?" he questioned, his voice steadily rising.

Wilson looked to him with confusion. He honestly had no idea what was going on with this. "You think I'm the head of some conspiracy against you?" he asked.

"I think you know something," House gruffly stated.

"What kind of case did he even get?" Wilson inquired, starting to really get curious about this whole situation. There had to be something that House wasn't telling him, something more.

"Young girl that can't breathe. No signs of the normal infections or anything like that," House answered, knowing that Wilson would agree with why he didn't get it in the first place. He knew that was the reason, it still bothered him though. He should be the one to let people know whether or not he could handle something, he wasn't a little kid, he was a grown man.

Wilson just looked to him and sighed. "House, I think you know why you didn't get that case," he tried to get him to understand and then went back to updating his files.

"Of course I know why. I just wonder how the hell she thought she could pull something like that without me knowing," House muttered, looking off to the side. More than anything, he felt betrayed. The person that should he should have been able to trust, went behind his back, and also, the one that should trust him enough to be able to believe him when he said he could handle something, obviously didn't.

"She was looking out for you," Wilson stated.

House stood up and started for the door. "I don't need anyone to look out for me, I need someone to let me do my job," he said right before he left.

ooo

House angrily threw open the door to Cuddy's office and barged in as she was talking to a possible donor. "How fragile do you think I am?" he demanded.

Cuddy's eyes widened as she looked up to him. "House!" Cuddy snapped. She then politely smiled to the older man that was sitting in front of her desk. "Excuse me a moment," she requested and then got up and grabbed House's arm and led him outside the room and over to one of the clinic rooms and closed the door. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Cuddy snapped, her arms folded as she stood there before him.

"I should be asking you the same question," House replied.

"What are you talking about?" Cuddy implored, trying to keep calm.

"The patient that Klein got, the one that I should've gotten," House explained.

"Are you seriously telling me that you would've been okay with treating that patient?" Cuddy asked, close to losing her patience with him.

"I don't know if I've ever told you this, but to me a patient is a puzzle. That's all," House argued, almost yelling. The only thing that kept him from yelling was the fact that he knew she would just leave if they got too loud in there. She hated a scene.

Cuddy huffed, she knew that he would be upset when he found out, but she didn't want to deal with this right now. Why did he always have to pick the worst times to do this stuff? "If they don't mean anything to you, then why are you so upset over not getting this particular one?" Cuddy asked.

"My own wife is treating me like a little kid!" House gruffly announced. "I don't need anyone to decide what I can and can't handle and I sure as hell don't need someone to sit around and filter what happens around me," he sharply explained.

Cuddy's expression soften as she dropped her arms to her sides. "Well you don't exactly have the best record when it comes to dealing with pain," she mentioned.

House was angry, and she was only making it worse right now. "How many times do I need to tell you, this is a patient. I am a doctor. I do not get emotionally attached to the patients and I do not care what they have, just as long as it's something interesting," he sternly informed her.

Cuddy threw her arms up in defeat. "Fine, you want me to transfer her over to you?"

"I want you to stop being my fucking babysitter and let me be a doctor," House demanded and then turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

Cuddy stood there a moment, keeping her eyes on the door after he left. She didn't know how to feel right now, angry? Maybe? Upset? She just pissed off her husband over something that she did to try and keep him from pushing her away, and it completely back fired.

Carefully, she opened the door and headed back to her office. At that point, she was just relieved to see that the donor was still there and pasted a fake smile on her face as she apologized to him and then went on with the meeting.

**Okay, I know that this chapter seems a bit jumpy, and there is a lot that happened, but believe me, this will all pull together soon enough. I think most of you can see where I'm going with the whole patient story here, and the story between Gabrielle and Andy will be more clear in a couple of chapters. I hope you enjoyed this chapter none the less, and please let me know what you think. Reviews are always appreciated.**


	18. Everybody Lies part 2

Chapter 17: Everybody Lies (part 2)

Gabrielle stood in the kitchen, getting dinner ready while Jason sat in his high chair. "Is someone getting tired?" she asked after hearing him yawn.

"No mama," Jason answered.

Gabrielle laughed and looked over to him. "Yes," she argued.

"No!" Jason replied, and then yawned once again.

Gabrielle laughed as she turned back to face the stove. "Okay then," she said.

Andy walked into the room and sat down at the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the stack of mail in his hand, the letter. "Did we get anything today?" she asked.

Andy started scanning through it. She could see him briefly stop on one of the envelopes and figured that it was the one from Missy. "Bills," he carefully answered.

Gabrielle briefly raised her eyebrows, keeping her face down towards the stove. She had been hoping that he would mention the letter. Why she was doing this, she didn't really know, maybe she had know that she could trust him when it came to things like this. Then again, maybe he was waiting until after he read it, just to see what it was and then would forget about it.

ooo

House and Cuddy both walked in the door together. House quickly made his way through the living room and into the kitchen, while Cuddy slowly made her way over to the chair in the living room and sat down. It had been a ling day for her since House had found out about the patient. He had been cold and distant. Any thing said between them was her apologizing and him making cutting remarks towards her.

On the couch, Elisabeth and Jessica were both working on a crossword puzzle that they had found. Elisabeth looked up and noticed Cuddy mindlessly staring towards the tv. Jessica noticed her looking over and then turned back to see the same thing. She then looked back to her sister, silently questioning what was going on, and the response she got was to go upstairs. As naturally as they could, they gathered the puzzle and headed up to their room. Jessica stayed slow to make sure that her and Elisabeth stayed together on the staircase.

Elisabeth closed the door behind her as Jessica set the puzzle on the desk. Elisabeth asked her if she saw the way that daddy had hurried away from mom.

Jessica shook her head. "I didn't notice anything until I looked back and saw mom," she explained.

Elisabeth nodded and sat down on the edge of her bed. She knew that they had both been a little stressed out lately, she was just scared of what was going to happen between them now. Deep down, she knew that it was because of her, but she didn't want to say anything.

"What do you think they're fighting over?" Jessica implored.

Elisabeth shrugged and told her it could be anything.

ooo

That night, House and Cuddy both lay silently in bed together. Over dinner that night, they both tried to act normal, but they found that they were both bad actors when it came down to it.

Cuddy looked over, she could see his outline, his back turned to her. "Greg?" she gently called, hoping for a response. Even if she felt that she was right to give the patient to someone else, it was more important to her for them to be talking to each other. She wanted to apologize, and hope for his forgiveness.

"What?" House gruffly asked, not even bothering to sit up, or turn to look to her.

"I'm sorry," she stated.

"I'm sure," House replied.

"Really," Cuddy assured him. She sat there for a moment in the silence before she put her hand on his shoulder.

House finally turned over and looked to her. "Do you think I'm an idiot?" he snapped, sitting up. He saw Cuddy jump back, but didn't even care at this point. "You're not sorry, you still think that you were right."

Cuddy sighed. "Tell me what was so wrong with what I did then," she instructed.

"You treated a grown man like a child. You have told me before that you respect me as a doctor and then you go behind my back and go against everything that you had ever told me. All that talk about respect and trust was all a bunch of bullshit and you want me to thank for being the hypocrite you were," he harshly explained. "What's even worse is I know the second that I go behind your back and do something you'll bitch and moan about it to me for weeks, even after I apologize."

Cuddy sat there, biting her lip. "You wanna know why I did it?" she sternly asked.

"Why? You think of a good lie to tell me in the last few minutes?" he questioned.

Cuddy ignored the comment and went ahead and told him. "The same damn reason that you walk out every time someone around here gets sick or something goes wrong. I was scared."

House looked up to her. He couldn't clearly see her face, but he could hear the pain and upset in her voice.

"I thought that would be something that you of all people would understand," Cuddy spat.

"You were scared that I would walk out on the patient?" he responded. He knew better than that, but something kept him from saying her. A guilt that suddenly overcame him.

"I was scared that you would walk out on your family," she informed him. She sniffled as the tears of frustration fell from her eyes. "I need you Greg, and I didn't want to lose you because I was dumb enough to just hand you a file that would cause you to go overboard," she bitterly explained.

He needed her too, more than she would ever know. He couldn't tell her that though. He wanted to, but he couldn't, he was afraid to. For some stupid reason, he felt like that would make him too vulnerable. "You really think that keeping me from seeing that one file is going to change what's going to happen in a few months?" he inquired.

"You've already given up? You're not even going to try to stick around?" she implored. It wasn't a surprise to her, she hated to hear him give up so quickly.

House just sat there, silently. Now, he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. He knew that he probably would leave when the time came. He did when anything else happened. That wasn't what he wanted to tell her though. He also didn't want to tell her that he wouldn't leave and then end up leaving anyways. It wasn't like he was walking out on their marriage, he was just leaving the situation for a little bit.

"I see," Cuddy flatly stated.

"Oh come on Lisa," House stated, getting irritated, not because of her, but because of the guilt that he felt. "What difference would it make anyways? We could watch each other react? There's nothing that anyone can do. We've already lost. As a matter of fact that was determined twelve years ago when she was born."

"At least we wouldn't be alone," Cuddy replied.

"Yeah," House sighed out, just ready to go to sleep and forget about all of this.

ooo

Gabrielle lay in bed as she watched Andy get ready for bed. He hadn't brought up the letter yet, so she was starting to think that it might have just been nothing. "I forgot to mention earlier, I got a call from Marcy today," Gabrielle started.

"Yeah?" Andy asked, coming to join her in bed. "What did she have to say?"

"Joe proposed to her and she said yes," Gabrielle answered, smiling. She was truly excited for her friend. The last time that she was out to see them, she had brought Joe along with her. Gabrielle had been pretty sure from the start that they would end up getting married.

"Well there you go. You were right," Andy said and then leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"I just hope that the wedding isn't until after the baby's born. She wants me to be a bride's maid and it would be pretty bad if I had to cancel on her," Gabrielle explained.

"You didn't tell her about the baby?" Andy questioned, looking to her with confusion.

"Of course not! She was so excited, how could I take the spot light away from her like that?" she implored, acting as if it were common sense.

Andy looked over towards the door and sighed. "I forgot to lock the back door," he said and then stood up. "I'll be back in a minute."

Gabrielle watched him. Something was wrong, there was something on his mind. "Okay," she replied, watching him walk out of the room. Sighing, she laid back and stared up towards the ceiling, thinking maybe there was something in that letter. Either that, or she was becoming paranoid. One or the other.

Andy got downstairs and stopped in the kitchen. Instead of going over to the door, he stopped at the counter where he had set down all the mail and picked out the letter from Missy. The envelope had already been torn from when he had opened it not too long ago. With his fingers, he traced the outline of the flap before he opened it and pulled the letter out, the folded paper that contained the picture of a six year old boy, one that closely resembled him.

Carefully, he put everything back in the envelope and slid the letter into his coat pocket out in the living room before heading back upstairs. In his mind, what Gabrielle didn't know, couldn't hurt her.


	19. Busy Day

Chapter 18: Busy Day

"Momma!" Jason cried from his high chair in the kitchen.

"In a minute honey!" Gabrielle replied. She was rushing through the house to try and find her phone book. She needed to look for someone else to watch Jason for the day since her usual nanny had to call off with the flu. She had to leave in ten minutes, and she just wasn't finding what she needed.

"Momma!" Jason yelled even louder this time.

Gabrielle stood straight up in the living room where she had been digging through the coffee table drawer. "All right," she sighed in defeat and then marched into the kitchen. Jason, who was crying, immediately looked up and smiled to her. "Do you think you can handle coming to work with mommy today?" she questioned.

Jason just laughed.

Gabrielle smirked. "That's exactly what I was afraid of," she stated and then picked him up. "Your face has already been cleaned and you're dressed. I have a diaper bag already ready. So far we're doing good."

"Nope," Jason replied and then laughed.

"Right," Gabrielle responded and then finished getting Jason ready to leave.

ooo

House casually stepped into the conference room and hung his cane on the edge of the table as he got himself a cup of coffee. His entire team sat there, watching him. "I know I'm a remarkable human being, but you have to draw the line somewhere," he stated.

"You could have told us that you were going to be three hours late," Chase mentioned.

"You're right, I could have," House agreed and then took a sip. "But I didn't."

"Any reason why?" Foreman questioned.

House shrugged and then made his way back over to the whiteboard. "The real question here is, is this any of my business. In either case though, the answer is no," he explained.

"I know that you're wife was at a meeting while you were gone," Morgan announced. "Does that by any chance mean anything?"

"Yeah? Who's my wife?" House implored. Even though the two had been married for a while, they didn't talk about it much at work. They each wore their wedding rings, but they let people figure it out for themselves. At first, there was talk about it, but it had been ten years already. The talk had faded quite a bit and people moved on to new things. Reynolds had been there about four years and Morgan had only been there a little under a year. House had made sure to tell Chase, Foreman, and Wilson not to mention it to them and Cuddy would never mention it at work anyways.

Morgan smugly smiled to him for a moment. "Cuddy," she answered.

"Are you sure?" he questioned.

Morgan nodded to him. "There's a picture on your desk, of your kids. The one girl looks exactly like her, and then the little boy, he doesn't look exactly like her, but you can tell. And I know you're married because of the ring," she explained.

House nodded in approval. "You snooped around my office," he said.

"I wanted to know why you were late," she replied.

"I like the skills, but hate having my things looked through. Don't do it again," he sternly informed her.

ooo

Cuddy casually stepped into her office and closed the door behind her. The meeting with the board went well, which put her in a relatively good mood for the morning. Approaching her desk though, she stopped for a minute and examined a small box that was just sitting there. Nothing too fancy, if anything, it looked like a really cheap jewelry box. A simple, small wooden crate that opened on top.

With her curiosity suddenly sparked, she went around to the other side of her desk and sat down, carefully eyeing the box. Upon opening it, she saw two items, a folded note and a pair of ruby earrings. Smiling, she took the note out and unfolded it.

_The earrings go with that red dress. Wear it tonight, I need to see Patty and Selma. We are going out. You can thank me afterwards, no dress is a requirement. _

Cuddy smirked and folded the note back up and placed it back into the box. House wanted to do something nice for her, she was going to let him.

ooo

Gabrielle walked into the classroom with Jason in her arms. At the moment, she was just happy that she had made it before any of the children had shown up. "Okay," she sighed out, setting him down on the rug. She knelt down and smiled to him. "Do you think that you can behave yourself today?" she implored.

Jason looked up to her and laughed.

"You need to stop doing that before mommy has a panic attack," Gabrielle stated, keeping her smile pasted to her face. Trying to figure something out to keep him busy, she looked around the room and spotted the blocks. They were perfect, too big for him to stick in his mouth and choke on and he could entertain himself with them. He had similar ones in his room that he liked to build towers with and then knock down. "You wanna go play with the blocks?" she offered, pointing to them.

"Yeah!" Jason said and then got up and rushed over to the shelf that they were on.

Gabrielle stood up and smiled. Today might just work out.

"Hi Mrs. Richards!"

Gabrielle looked over and smiled to the young girl as she walked in. Her long blonde hair was in pigtails, the bows matching her pink long sleeved dress and red jacket. "Hi Cassie. How are you this morning?" she asked.

"Good," Cassie replied as she took her backpack over to the hook on the wall with her name above it. When she turned back around, she spotted Jason. "Hey! He's not supposed to be here!" she announced, pointing to him. "He's too little!"

"Who's here?" Kirk asked, quickly rushing over.

Gabrielle laughed. "That's my son, Jason. He's just going to be here with us today. That okay with you two?"

They both said yes and went to go play. As each kid walked in, they stopped to ask the same question, and she would give them the same answer. The day went pretty smoothly. Gabrielle started out by having the kids tell her what day of the week it was and the date. She then had them practice writing their names. Then they played a reading game. During all of this, Jason was able to keep out of trouble. Lunch time and recess came and Gabrielle stayed in the room with Jason while the kids went to the cafeteria and out to the playground. Afterwords though, Jason decided that he needed more attention.

"All right everyone! Come here and sit down in a circle on the rug!" Gabrielle instructed to the class.

Everyone did as they were told. Jason stayed back at one of the tables and colored.

"Okay, since today is Friday, we are going to share what we are going to do this weekend," Gabrielle explained. Gabrielle took her spot on the floor with the kids, making sure that she could see Jason. Once she realized she could, she smiled over to the little boy who was sitting to the left of her. "Okay, Evan, you get to go first this time."

"My mommy's having a baby, so I have to go stay with my granny," he explained.

Jason perked his head up and looked over. "Hey!" he called over to them. "My mommy's having a baby too!" he announced.

Maria, who was sitting closest to tables, looked to Gabrielle with a huge smile. "Really?" she asked.

Gabrielle sighed and then looked over to Maria. "Yes it is," she answered.

Jason got down from his seat and made his way over to the circle.

"Jason honey, you interrupted Evan. I think you should say you're sorry to him and let him finish his story," Gabrielle said.

Evan shook his head. "Nope. I was done," he replied.

Henry, turned and looked to Gabrielle. "Mrs. Richards?"

"Yes Henry?" Gabrielle questioned.

"How do you know you're having a baby? Shouldn't your belly be bigger?" he asked.

Gabrielle laughed. She was about to tell him that the doctor told her, but Jason started talking before she could.

"My daddy, he says that he knew cus, cus she wanted to do it a lot," Jason explained, causing Gabrielle to drop her face into her hands. This was not the discussion she wanted to be having right now. Jason looked over to Gabrielle. "Momma? What's it?" he asked.

Gabrielle slowly looked up to him and forced herself to smile. "I was calling people to tell them about the baby. That's what it was," she lied.

ooo

After school was out, Gabrielle took Jason over to Princeton-Plainsboro. Something told her that her nanny would cancel for Monday too, and she did not want to have to take him along with her after today. She made her way up to House's office and stepped in. "Hey daddy," she greeted, carrying Jason on her hip.

"No," House answered, staring at his computer.

"I don't want you to watch him tonight. You already told me what you were planning on doing tonight. I thought I might offer to take the kids to my house so that you can do her without waiting for everyone to get to sleep or how ever you do it," she explained.

House turned and looked up to her. "All right," he said. "When are you dropping the rugrat off then?" he questioned.

Gabrielle stepped closer and smiled. "Well, his nanny's got the flu," she started. "I thought maybe Monday, you could take him?"

House just looked to her for a minute. "Go ask Lisa," he stated.

Gabrielle nodded. "All right," she replied and then turned to leave. As she approached the door though, Morgan and Chase stepped in.

"Hey Gabi," Chase greeted.

"Hey, and I know what you were about to ask, and yes, I can still watch Erin for you Saturday night," she responded.

"Thank you," he replied and then continued to House's desk as Gabrielle walked out the door.

"You two found nothing?" House asked, leaning forward.

"We did find a lot of mold in his house," Morgan informed him. She then turned back and looked towards the door and then back to him. "She born before or after you were married?" she implored.

"Before. And the infection is in his blood now, so put him on the broad spectrum," House instructed.

Chase nodded and left the room. Morgan, however stuck around. "How many years before?" she questioned.

House sighed. "None of your business," he stated and then got up and headed out of the room.

ooo

"Please mom?" Gabrielle nearly begged. She was standing before Cuddy's desk while Jason sit on the couch.

Cuddy looked up to her and smiled. "All right, I'll watch him for you on Monday," she decided. She then looked up to her, puzzled. "What did you do with him today?"

Gabrielle sighed and crossed her arms. "I took him to school with me today. While we were there, I also found out that Andy had mentioned how H - O - R - N- Y I get the first few months I'm pregnant. He went on to tell the class that that was how Andy knew that I was, because we did it a lot," she explained. One more thing that she was mad at Andy for. He still had yet to mention the letter.

Cuddy smirked as she looked over to Jason. "Did you tell the other kids about what your daddy said about mommy?" she inquired.

Jason looked up and nodded. "Yes!" he answered.

Cuddy then looked back up to Gabrielle. "I could probably just stay home with him," she stated.

"Thank you so much!" Gabrielle replied. She went over and grabbed Jason off the couch. "Say bye bye to grandma," she told him.

"Bye bye!" he called out to her.

"Bye Jason," Cuddy responded.

**And, for today, a lighter chapter. Thought I could really use one. I know that none of the kids were in this one, but they will be in the next one. Let me know what you think. Also, happy 4th of July! Hope it isn't too hot where you're at. Right here, its pretty close to 100, so I'm didn't go to any cook out nor am I going to see any fireworks.**


	20. Need

Chapter 19: Need

Gabrielle walked into the house with House and Cuddy. She still had Jason with her. "Hey! Get ready! You're all coming to my place for the night!" Gabrielle announced up the stairs.

"Lovely," Cuddy stated as she passed her to head upstairs.

Gabrielle watched Cuddy for a second and then looked over to see House looking through the book shelf for something. "Hey daddy? You mind if I talk to you for a second?" she requested, looking to him with concern.

"Yes, but you're still going to keep talking anyways," he responded. He slightly bent over, staring closely at the bindings of the books.

Gabrielle watched him for a brief moment, wondering what he could be doing, but soon decided that what she had to say was more important right now. "In the kitchen?" she asked.

House stood up and looked to her. He wanted to tell her that she should just go ahead and say it instead of dragging it on and annoying him, but she was truly concerned for him. "All right, let's make it quick," he sighed.

Gabrielle softly smiled and then followed him into the kitchen. What she had to tell him, she knew that he would never believe, but eventually he would see what she was talking about. She quickly sat Jason down on the floor and got him a cookie that she had gotten for him earlier that day, knowing that he would need it if he got too out of hand.

Once Jason was taken care of, she turned and looked to House. Her hands on her hips, with her blue eyes staring straight into his as he casually stood there. "I think that new doctor, Morgan, has the hots for you," she sternly announced.

House suspiciously raised one of his eyebrows. "You got that from the two seconds that you saw her today?" he implored, pointing to her. "Wow. You're either just that good, or, you're insane."

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Remember, I was the one who helped you pick her out. I know how she is, she questions things, she tries to figure things out that she doesn't know. It doesn't matter what it is, just as long as she can figure out everything that's going on around her," she curtly explained. She dropped her arms to her sides and softened her expression. "She didn't question why I was there, or even who Jason was. I know that you keep your person life a secret to the new ones, you use it to screw with their heads."

House sighed. He did have to admit, she did have a point there. She should have at least glanced over at Gabrielle, but she didn't. She barely even noticed that she was there. He wasn't about to let Gabrielle think that she was right about this though. "Her and Chase had just come back from searching through a patient's home. All she had was black mold, but she was still high off her rush from breaking in. Besides, she knows who you are, and probably was able to figure out who Jason was. It's not a complete mystery," he argued.

Gabrielle laughed. "Did she know why we were there?" she questioned. It was no surprise to her that House would offer every argument against her that he had, especially in this situation.

"You've stopped by plenty of times just to stop by. She figured that she had better things to do than ask questions that she already knows the answers to," he stated.

Gabrielle looked over and checked on Jason real quick before crossing her arms. "You already know don't you? You just don't want to admit it," she inquired.

"Yeah, that's it," House sarcastically replied. He turned and headed towards the fridge. "That way, when she gets in me in bed, I can use the excuse that it wasn't my fault. She pulled the date rape drug on me."

"I don't care whether or not you'll admit it right now. But I do care that you be careful and talk to her. I know that you and Lisa love each other, but the last thing either of you needs is someone giving off the wrong signals and getting hit on," she sternly warned him.

House turned to her and glared. "You really think that I would cheat?" he bitterly questioned. The mere idea did offend him. He could be called rude, harsh, snarky, sarcastic, arrogant, any of that stuff, and it was all true, but, he was not a cheater.

Gabrielle shook her head. "Of course not, but I do know a few things. I know that Morgan acts shy, but when it comes down to it, she's pretty confident, which probably makes her aggressive, meaning that if she feels like it, she'll lay a kiss right on you, and not just some plain kiss either, she won't be afraid to use the tongue. I also know that mom is a little emotional right now, probably a little sleep deprived, both bad things if something causes her to be a little paranoid. And another thing I know, is that even though you are still House and you can still observe the absolute hell out of everything and be obsessive and notice everything, I'm sure that lately you are a tiny bit distracted. You won't exactly be looking for Morgan's signs of affection."

"I'll brogan my squirt bottle to work with me from now on," House remarked.

"I just don't want anybody getting hurt," Gabrielle explained.

"You should know by now that that's impossible to avoid," he replied and then left the room.

Perplexed, Gabrielle watched him. It was as soon as she turned to go get Jason that she realized how true that was. It seemed liked every few months there was something wrong. There was never going to be a long time period in which everything was fine. She could hope for one, but it didn't seem likely that her wish would come true.

ooo

House and Cuddy sat in the car together on their way back home. House was wearing a button down short and jacket while Cuddy in her red low cut dress that came down to her knees and the earrings that House had gotten for her. The dinner was nice. There wasn't too much talking between the two, some casual little things here and there, but they avoided the topic of Elisabeth. Not her all together, but her situation. Tonight was for them to forget and to enjoy each other, not dwell on the things that were going wrong or them.

"Thank you," Cuddy said, staring out the window. She was happy to just get out for one night without having to worry about Elisabeth. Usually, she would hate to leave her at home, wondering constantly if she was okay. Ever since that one time when Gabrielle and Wilson watched the babies and they went out alone, that night that they got the call that Elisabeth wasn't breathing well and was in the hospital. Ever since then, she had been nervous about leaving her.

"How thankful are you?" House asked, hinting at the fact that he was expecting a little something in return.

Cuddy laughed. "Thankful enough," she assured him. "Don't worry."

"Good."

Cuddy sighed as she watched the passing scenery out the window. There was something that was still bothering her. One little thing that they had talked about, but never really resolved. It was something that would temporarily ruin the mood, but she had to ask. She just had to know. Apprehensively, she looked over to House and watched as he concentrated on the road.

"What?" House questioned, pulling up to a red light. He looked over and saw her look away from him and move her eyes down towards her lap.

"Are you going to leave when she dies?" Cuddy implored.

"I won't be there that night, but I will come back," he answered. The entire time, he kept his eyes on the light before him. The last thing he wanted to do was look over and see the hurt in her eyes, her begging him to not leave. He didn't want to see the way that he could be hurting her. The most he could promise though was that he would return. He might stay with Wilson one or two nights, but he would come back. To Cuddy though, he wasn't sure that that was enough. She would need him most the first night. There was no doubt in that, but he just couldn't do it, he himself would be hurting, so he figured that he would be useless that night anyways.

Cuddy nodded. She knew that, but she had to ask. As soon as the light turned green and he started to drive again, she turned and continued to look out the window.

The rest of the way home was silent. As soon as he pulled into the driveway, House turned the ignition off and looked over to Cuddy. Even though he hated it, this was one time where he knew that he had to force himself to be a little vulnerable. "Wait," he instructed, stopping her before she opened the door.

Cuddy looked up to him. The seriousness in his voice struck concern within her. "What is it?"

House looked down to the steering wheel for a moment, allowing himself to collect the words that he needed to tell her. "I promise you that I will be back," he flatly announced and then looked over to Cuddy. "I can promise you that because I need you too," he carefully forced the words out. His eyes stayed glued to her to see her reaction.

There was a slight hint of a smile on her face. The reassurance that he would be back, it helped. Without saying anything, she leaned over and kissed him. Slowly, she pulled back. "Thank you," she said and then got out of the car.

House just sat there a moment, watching her walk away from him and towards the front door. He did need her. He needed her before they even started seeing each other, he needed back when she was the only one who would give him a job, he needed her when Tritter was after him, and he needed her when his leg was better for a short period of time and then started going back to how it was.

ooo

Elisabeth and Jessica sat upstairs in the bed in the guest room, the one that was soon going to be turned into another room for the baby. They were both about to go to sleep, but Elisabeth looked over and got her sister's attention.

"What is it?" Jessica asked. She was about to lay down, but sat up completely.

Elisabeth took a second before she asked the question that she had been needing to ask for a while now. She asked her if she was jealous of her and Donnie.

Jessica stared to her for a moment, disbelieving the fact that she would even ask that question. Then again, it was common sense that she would be a little jealous. Adverting her eyes, she shrugged. "A little I guess," she went ahead and admitted.

Elisabeth nodded, understanding. She went ahead and asked Jessica is she knew that they had kissed already.

"Actually, I was watching from Tommy's room. i saw everything down there," Jessica explained. She knew that she shouldn't have been watching, but she wanted to see. She was curious.

Elisabeth looked to her, her face revealing the small amount of pain that she currently felt as she thought back on that night. If she could tell anyone about it, it was going to be Jessica. She trusted her with everything else. She asked her if she knew that she had been invited out on his Uncle's boat next summer.

Perplexed, Jessica just stared to her for a moment, trying to figure out what that piece of information had to do with anything. "No," she replied.

Elisabeth sighed. She told her that she can't go, no matter what, she can never go.

That was when it hit Jessica. Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened. "Oh," she barely breathed out, looking towards the wall, anything to keep from keeping her eyes on her sister. "I see," she stated. She knew that Elisabeth was dying, but this was the first time that she had hear Elisabeth say that it hurt her. Cautiously, she looked back up to her, seeing the pain presented in her eyes. No fear, just pain. She saw the tears forming in her eyes as she sat there and thought about it.

"I don't want you to die either," Jessica informed her, holding back her own tears for Elisabeth's sake. Without any hesitation, she leaned forward and threw her arms around Elisabeth, embracing her.

Elisabeth went ahead and hugged her back. The tears falling from her eyes. The part of her life that she had been getting herself ready for, was now becoming all too real for her. It was more than just a thought anymore, it was actually happening, and as it was, she was slowly realizing everything that she wanted to live for.

ooo

Gabrielle lay in bed next to Andy. It was late at night, and she was sure that Andy was already, but right now, that didn't matter anymore. There was something stuck on her mind, something that had been bothering her none stop. She turned over to face Andy and gently grabbed his shoulder. "Andy? Honey?" she quietly called out.

"What is it babe?" Andy mumbled, still half asleep.

"You got a letter from Missy," she said, letting him know that she knew.

Andy turned over to face her and sighed. "Yeah, I know. I opened it a while ago," he responded and then started to doze back off to sleep.

Gabrielle watched him for a moment. There was no visible guilt, so what ever was in that letter could not be that bad. Still though, she had to know. "Andrew?" she tried again, hoping that he would stay awake this time.

Andy moaned as he forced himself up off the pillow and then propped his head up on his hand. "You wanna know what was in the letter?" he inquired, trying to wake up.

Gabrielle nodded. "Very much so," she confessed. It had been bothering her, even if it was something innocent, she still had to know.

"I have a son," he casually announced.

Gabrielle looked to him for a moment, her brow furrowed in confusion. "So do I," she replied.

"No, you have one," Andy stated. "I have two. One with you and one with Missy. Johnny is six years old," he explained.

Gabrielle just watched him, disbelieving his words. "Seriously?" she nearly yelled. Right now, she was more surprised than anything. "Did you just find this out?" she implored, hoping that he had.

"Yes," Andy answered, starting to fully wake up and feel guilty about everything.

Gabrielle just nodded. "I see," she said and then turned over to go to sleep. "Good night then." Right now, she was a little upset, but she didn't actually want to really deal with this right now. It wasn't anything that broke her trust with him, so it wasn't high up on her list of priorities.

Andy sat up and looked down to her. This was not the reaction that he had expected from her. He thought that she would be mad, that she would be yelling at him. He figured that there would be a lot more than a simple goodnight. "That's it?" he questioned in disbelief. "No yelling? You're not mad at me?"

Gabrielle turned her head and looked back over her shoulder. "Listen, six years old. That means that he was conceived and born while we weren't together," she stated. She could see the look on his face, calling for more of an explanation. Sitting up completely, she sighed, "Look," she started, grabbing onto his hand. "I have enough to worry about as it is. Jason has learned how to get through a few of the child proof locks around here, so I have to start watching him a lot more closely. My little sister is dying. We found out that my little brother handles things like me and daddy. My parent's marriage is probably starting to slowly fall apart. My daddy is slowly becoming more and more distant while my mom cries once a week. I don't have time to worry about a child that you had while we were separated from each other," she firmly explained. "Besides, I'm still only three months along here, I don't want to get too stressed out or something and lose this baby. I just want to keep my stress level down to a minimal right now, and your other son is not causing any immediate danger."

"So you're not mad?" Andy asked.

"Until you do something stupid?" Gabrielle questioned. "No." She turned back over to start to fall asleep, but suddenly, something occurred to her. That was around the time that he was cheating on her. She sat back up and looked over, to see that Andy had laid back down and fallen asleep already. Instead of waking him up again, she herself laid back down and tried to remind herself that since they had been engaged, he hadn't done anything to lose her trust. That he had been good her so far and that he had been treating her right.


	21. The Way it Was

Chapter 20: The Way it Was

Cuddy woke up in House's arms with her head on his chest. Comfortable. The morning sun was starting to shine through the small openings in the blinds. There was no use in getting up today and going through her normal morning routine. The mere thought of trying to leave him there was unbearable. Instead, she looked over to him, smiling.

Last night, was something that she needed. Lately, the two had been somewhat distant, stressed out, and starting to get short and impatient with each other. Last night was their chance to just be together, and it worked. That was the part that she loved about him that she wished more people could realize. Everyone else always saw the part of him that was arrogant, the part that made him a jerk and an ass. This was the part reserved for some people, the part of him that truly did care, the part that wanted to help people without all the acknowledgment and attention. He would do small things for her, things that meant something and then move on, if possible without even being noticed.

"You ready for an encore?" House mumbled.

Cuddy laughed. "Maybe in a little bit. Did Gabi tell you when she needs to get the kids back to us?"

House sighed. "No," he answered.

Cuddy looked up to him and smirked. "Well, then how about you call her and check while I grab us both something to eat," she offered.

House held onto her as she attempted to get up. "You know, I'm not that hungry," he told her, grinning as he eyed her body.

Cuddy looked back to him. "Trust me, if we're alone for a while longer, you're going to need your energy," she informed him.

House let go of her and watched as she got up and headed over to the dresser to grab a shirt. "I think I'm in love," he announced.

Cuddy laughed as she proceeded out the door, knowingly making sure that the shirt was pulled up high enough to show off her underwear. House laid back and smiled. Right now, he was about as happy as he could ever be, light a little kid on Christmas morning, except the difference being that he was going to have more fun unwrapping this present than he ever had with any old toy.

ooo

Andy walked into the bedroom to se Gabrielle sitting on the edge of the bed, talking on her phone.

"Ew!" Gabrielle exclaimed, her face twisted in disgust. She stood up and started walking towards the dresser. "I've already thrown up once this morning. Isn't that enough for you?"

Andy stood there for a moment, holding a couple of dvds in his hand. Watching her, he was trying to figure out what she was talking about and with who.

Gabrielle grabbed a hair tie off the dresser and slid it onto her wrist. "Please," she sighed. "If you really wanna talk about this and get competitive, I'll have Andy talk to you and tell you a few of the things that we have done. Quite honestly, we are both very creative people, and can probably go at it better than you two."

"Damn right!" Andy agreed, hoping that he had said it loud enough to be heard over the phone.

Gabrielle looked over to him and laughed. "Hear that?" While she listened to the response, she rolled her eyes. "Right daddy, you can come get them when ever you want. Cameron and Chase are dropping Erin off around five and even then, I'm sure she'll be lay with everyone else here," she explained.

As soon as he heard her mention that it was her father, Andy's mouth dropped. Now, he felt like he was about to get killed when House came by to pick everyone up. "Why didn't you tell me who that was?" he asked, clearly irritated as he watched Gabrielle hang up and set the phone down.

Perplexed, Gabrielle looked over to Andy and laughed. "You mean, that's the question that you have after you hear me discussing that with my father?" she questioned and then headed down the hall.

Andy shrugged as he turned to follow her. "Well, there are just somethings that you would rather not know," he replied. He followed Gabrielle into Jason's room and watched as she went through his clothes and picked out something for him to wear. He then looked down and saw the dvds in his hand. "Oh, yeah. Ellie found a couple of your home movies or what ever. She wanted to know if she could watch them."

Gabrielle closed the dresser drawer and carried the clothes with her to the doorway. "Which ones?" she implored, taking the dvds and examining them. There were two, each with titles written on them: _Senior Project and Summer Vacation 2012. _"I remember these," she stated more to herself. Nodding, she looked up to Andy. "Yeah, I don't care."

Andy stood there and watched her rush out the room and head down the stairs. After last night, he felt just that much more guilty about what had happened between him and Missy. He knew that it was still on her mind, she had been avoiding too much talking with him. Ever since they both woke up this morning, she had been leaving the room after only a brief moment. It seemed as though whenever he would enter a room, she found a reason to leave the room. Instead of standing there dwelling on it though, he just sighed and took the movies down to Elisabeth to borrow.

ooo

Elisabeth and Jessica sat up in their bedroom. It was right after they had gotten home. Elisabeth had been excited all morning to finally be able to sit down and watch these movies. There was something about them that greatly interested her. She would get to see how things were while she was little, see the things that she couldn't remember.

There was also this weird nostalgic feeling that she started getting with things ever since she had started realizing what dying meant to her. It was as if she didn't want to miss anything at all, past or present.

"Why aren't we watching these downstairs with everyone else?" Jessica asked, closing the door behind her.

Elisabeth shrugged as she turned the laptop on. Really, she didn't know. It was just easier for her to watch by herself. The first one that she chose to watch was the Summer Vacation. As the movie started to play, Jessica came up and sat down beside Elisabeth.

_The movie started out with Gabrielle holding the camera, facing the mirror in her bedroom, the room that was now Rachel's up in the attic. "Okay kid," she said turning around to face her bed that was covered in clothing and an opened suitcase. _

_Among the clutter on the bed sat Rachel who was three years old. She picked up various articles of clothing, eyeing each of them with intent and amusement. "Pretty!" she happily announced, holding up a lime green t-shirt. _

_Gabrielle laughed as she took the shirt. "You like this one?" she implored. _

_"Yes! It's pretty!" Rachel answered. _

_"All right. That's all I have room for. I would like to thank my beautiful little fashion expert over here for assisting me in packing for my trip back to Ohio for a couple of weeks," Gabrielle stated. "Wave to the camera Rachel!" _

_Rachel smiled as she looked up and waved with one hand, and then blew a kiss with the other. _

_The scene then cut to Gabrielle walking down the hall towards Tommy's room and peeking in the doorway. "You mind?" she implored. _

_Cuddy, who was walking Tommy back and forth looked over. "It's okay," she responded. _

_Gabrielle stepped in and watched as Cuddy gently laid the little baby down in the crib. "This is my new little brother, Tommy. He's now a month old," she softly announced. She then took the camera off of him and looked over to Cuddy. "And here is the insane woman who likes to punish herself."_

_Cuddy looked to her and glared for a second before smiling and shaking her head. "You should go see what you're father is doing. He took the girls outside to go play in the little blow up pool," she informed her. _

_Gabrielle laughed. "Thanks for the heads up," she said and then started out the door and down the stairs. She went out to the back yard where Rachel was chasing Jessica around the pool and Elisabeth was sitting in the pool. _

_"Hey Daddy." _

_House, who was sitting in a lawn chair, looked up to Gabrielle. "Turning me in to social services?" _

_"Just getting some video. I wanted everyone to be in it," Gabrielle answered. _

_"Stop it!" Jessica shrieked. _

_The camera quickly went from House to Jessica and Rachel. Jessica was down on the ground, on her back as Rachel poured a bucket of water on her. Gabrielle just laughed. Then Elisabeth reached over and grabbed a plastic shovel that was beside her. As soon as Rachel went to get another bucket of water, Elisabeth threw the shovel at her head. _

_"Elisabeth Rose!" Gabrielle exclaimed. She set the camera down on the table and went over to pick Rachel up and comfort her. _

_"Thank you," Jessica said as she stood up and smiled over to Elisabeth. _

_The next thing on the screen was Andy, Doug, Veronica, and Marcy sitting out on a trampoline as the sun was setting. "The night before we leave everyone," Gabrielle announced. _

_"Yeah," Doug sighed. "And, my last couple of nights here with everyone." _

_Marcy smiled and looked over. "You can't miss us that much," she replied. _

Elisabeth decided to stop the movie and take it out. She had an idea of what the rest of the movie was, the trip and Gabrielle and her friends getting drunk and then leaving.

"We really did always look out for each other didn't we?" Jessica questioned, blankly staring at the now black screen.

Elisabeth nodded as she went ahead and put in the next dvd. She wanted to move on before they both started thinking too much and got themselves upset and worked up.

_Gabrielle sat on her bed in her room, the one that Elisabeth and Jessica currently used. "Hey! I'm Gabrielle Zbin, and I will be presenting to you, the people that are important to me. I have narrowed down a list of ten people. It took a lot of time and careful consideration, but I finally got a list together that to me, makes sense. These people include, Gregory House, Lisa House, Rachel Cuddy, Elisabeth House, Jessica House, Andy Richards, Marcy Clark, Cori Williams, Maria Zbin, and the hardest one for me to put on this list, Eloise Zbin." _

_The scene cut to a shot outside of the conference room as House stood before his team, writing on his whiteboard. "This is Gregory House, my daddy. He is a doctor that works at Princeton - Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He can be a jerk, and arrogant, but he is still my father, and he really, truly does care. Only the people who know him well, know that he does care." _

_The scene then cut again to House sitting behind his desk. "I'm not too found of having a camera in my face while I'm pretending to work," House stated, looking down at a file. _

_"Lisa said that if you agree to this, you don't have to work in the clinic for the rest of the week," Gabrielle offered. _

_House looked up, interest sparked. "No she didn't," he argued and then went back to looking down. _

_"Really, she did. You can call and ask her. Besides, even if I was lying, you would have to be down there in five minutes, and I can take ten minutes, just so that you're late and you would have a good excuse and you wouldn't have to be there as long," Gabrielle explained. _

_House sighed. "Fine," he gave in, looking back up to her. _

_"Did you know you made my list of important people?" she casually implored. _

_House raised his eyebrow to her. "Does this mean I have to pretend to care?" _

_"You should feel honored," she replied. _

_"Why? I have to be important to you. Without me, you literally would not exist," House argued. _

_"Well, for a while there you were just the sperm donor," Gabrielle stated. _

_House turned back to the computer. "Was that your's or Maria's name for me?" he questioned. _

_"Her's," Gabrielle stated. "I referred to you is that one man."_

_There was a slightly bitter look to House as he stared at the screen. "I wish I had a witty nickname for you from before I met you." _

_There was a pause. "I'm glad I got to meet my mommy's sperm donor though," she said. _

_House nodded. "Me too," he murmured. _

_"Even though I hug too much?" she asked. _

_"It's understandable considering how much I resemble a teddy bear," House answered. _

_The next scene cut to Gabrielle sitting out in the lobby with someone else holding the camera for her. "The next person, Lisa House. Here though, she is still known as Cuddy, because that's what everyone got used to calling her, and she doesn't want it to be completely obvious that she married one of her employees I guess. Anyways, this woman, she is the Dean of Medicine here, but, she is also the one who risked just about everything to be able to keep me. She adopted me and I still owe her a lot. Worse part is, I still don't know why she did this for me," she explained. _

_The next shot, the camera was back in Gabrielle's hand as she stepped into Cuddy's office. "Got a minute?" _

_Cuddy, who was sitting at her desk, looked up. "Sure," she complied. She took the papers on her desk and straightened them into a neat pile. _

_"So, what do you do here?" Gabrielle asked, more with a child would when they were bored and nothing better to do while waiting. _

_"Run the hospital," Cuddy answered, mimicking Gabrielle's tone. _

_"Do you sometimes forget how to be a real doctor?" Gabrielle questioned. _

_Cuddy smirked. "Tell your dad that I still sign his paychecks, and to keep that in mind when he's talking to you or anybody else." _

_"Will do," Gabrielle responded. "I think I should tell you, you're in this video because you're important to me."_

_Cuddy softly laughed. "Thank you," she replied. _

_"You wanna tell everyone why you adopted me?" Gabrielle questioned. _

_Cuddy froze for a second, staring up at Gabrielle. She looked as though she was trying to figure out what Gabrielle was looking for. "I adopted you because I wasn't about to stand back and watch a young girl be punished because her father happens to have a few bad marks on his record," she explained, her face void of any emotion. "I happen to care about you."_

_"Well, I am adorable," Gabrielle stated, trying to lighten the mood a little. _

_"I do have a soft spot for kids," Cuddy remarked. _

_Gabrielle laughed, "I would hope so," she replied. "Hey! Why don't you stand you stand up?" she requested. _

_"Why?" Cuddy questioned. _

_"Proving that you like children. This morning I believe you called that tiny little bump you have cute," Gabrielle explained. _

_Cuddy sighed. "I don't think so."_

_"Your feelings sure changed quickly there," Gabrielle commented. _

_Cuddy rolled her eyes and stood up, turned to her side and then quickly sat back down. _

_Gabrielle laughed at how quickly Cuddy could get annoyed. "I love you," she mentioned. _

_"Love you too," Cuddy breathed out. _

_The scene cut again to Gabrielle in the living room sitting on the couch with her three sisters. "Now, these girls, are my cute little sisters," she announced. She then went on to introduce them from the furthest from her to the closest to her. "This is Rachel," she stated, motioning to her. "Go ahead and say hi Rachel."_

_"Hi!" Rachel chirped and then blew a kiss to the camera. _

_"Then this here is Jessica," Gabrielle said. _

_"Hi," Jessica said. _

_"And this here is the loudest child I have ever met. Elisabeth," Gabrielle teased. _

_Elisabeth smiled and waved. _

_"Now Rachel? Could you tell me what your favorite show is?" Gabrielle asked. She smiled to the camera and then looked back to Rachel. _

_"Green Acres!" Rachel cheerfully announced. _

_"That is awesome!" Gabrielle replied and then smiled proudly to the camera. "I used to sing the theme song to her all the time." _

_Rachel stood up on the couch and started to sing. "Green Acres is the place to be! Farm living is the life for me! Land spreading out so far and wide! Keep Manhattan just give me that country side! New York is where I'd rather stay! I get allergic smelling hay! I just adore a penthouse view! Darling I love you but give me park avenue!" She then sat back down and hugely smiled to the camera. _

_Gabrielle laughed. "I think someone likes attention," she mentioned and then looked over to Jessica. "And you like Three's Company."_

_Jessica laughed. "Yes," she answered. _

_"But you're not going to sing?" Gabrielle implored. _

_Jessica shook her head and looked away from the camera. _

_Gabrielle looked down and put her hand on Elisabeth's back as she smiled to her. "And this one here, I always sang the theme to the Mary Tyler Moore Show."_

_Elisabeth clapped her hands as she nodded. _

_"Because you're gonna make it after all! Right?" Gabrielle asked. _

_Elisabeth smiled and nodded. _

_The screen then cut to Andy, Marcy, and Cori sitting at the kitchen table. _

_"These are my three best friends. Ever," Gabrielle informed everyone. _

_"I was her boyfriend," Andy announced, putting his hand up and motioning to himself. _

_Marcy laughed. "Was. For a reason there," she explained. _

_"Anyways," Andy started, briefly glaring to Marcy before looking back to the camera. "I've known Gabrielle since she was like five years old. She was best friends with my little sister and then started hanging out with me later on. We have dated a couple of times. We have never been enemies though. Never." _

_"I'm Marcy. We met our freshman year of high school. Ever since then, even though we live in different states, Gabi and I keep in contact. She and Andy come down every summer to see everyone. She lived with me for part of her freshman year and then stays with me part of the summer. There was a Christmas in which her family came and stayed with us," Marcy explained._

_"She's basically a sister to me," Gabrielle added. _

_Marcy laughed. "Yes, you could definitely say that," she agreed. _

_"I'm Cori. I met Gabrielle here while working on a project with her at the beginning oft her first year out here. She went on to save me from making the worst decision of my life. She convinced me to live when I wanted to end it all. In all honesty, I think this should really be the other way around. I'm a friend to her, but she doesn't need me. I need her. She's important to me," Cori stated. _

_Gabrielle stood there, silent for a moment. "Thank you, but that's not true. Believe me, it's not true," Gabrielle assured her. _

_"Anyways," Gabrielle said, hoping to get lighter again. _

_"Would you believe that she thinks that Violet should give Tate a second chance on American Horror Story?" Andy randomly asked, motioning towards Gabrielle. _

_"He may have murdered, and he may have raped, but he did change and I believed everything he said to Violet as he was begging her not to break up with him," Gabrielle firmly argued. _

_Marcy looked between Andy and Gabrielle. "You know, I agree with her. I don't know what your problem is," she told Andy. _

_Andy rolled his eyes and then looked over to Cori. "What about you?" _

_"I agree that he changed, but I don't think that he deserves a second chance," she stated. _

_Andy looked to Gabrielle and motioned to Cori. "Thank you!" _

_"What are you guys talking about?" Cuddy inquired, walking passed them over to the counter._

_Andy turned back to face her. "You ever watch American Horror Story?" he implored. _

_Cuddy grabbed a glass and looked back to him. "No. I've heard about it, but I never watched it. Why?" she questioned and then went over to the sink and filled the glass with water. _

_"We're talking about Violet and Tate breaking up," Marcy clarified. _

_"Yeah, those two breaking up over the reason that she stated, would be like you breaking up with Daddy because he took a Vicodin and left you alone at the hospital," Gabrielle started. "Violet knew that Tate was a murderer and still stayed with him. She waited until the very end to leave him for doing things that she should have expected of him." _

_Cuddy just shook her head and walked out of the room. _

_"I still think you two are insane," Andy murmured with his arms folded as he sank back into the chair. _

_"But you love me for it," Gabrielle said. _

_Andy just shrugged. _

_The scene then cut to Gabrielle sitting back in her room. She looked melancholic as she stared down to a spot next to her on the bed. "All right, now, the next person on my list, cannot be on this video because she is dead. My mom, Maria Zbin," she announced and then looked up to the camera. She held up a picture of her and Maria together. "This was taken three years ago, right before the car wreck that killed her. Her last picture ever."_

_Gabrielle sighed as she set the picture back down on the bed beside her. "Anyways, she is my mother. She wasn't always the best, but she still did raise me. She taught me to walk, talk, dress myself, potty trained me, taught me to read a little and write a little before I started school. There were times where she would lay dress up with me, bake things for me and fix my hair. Three years now, she has been dead, and even though we didn't quite get along at the end, I still miss her greatly." _

_Gabrielle then sat there silently for a brief moment. "Then, that brings me to my last person. My Aunt Eloise." _

_Gabrielle closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "All right," she breathed out. "This, is the woman that has verbally, and physically abused me. This is the woman that to this day, tells me that I am the disgrace of this family. Right now, I do not have her here to talk for obvious reasons. I don't want her here." _

_"Now, some of you might be wondering how a person like this could be important to me. Eloise is the worst person that you could ever imagine leaving a child with, but I was left with her regardless, and while I was there, I learned a few things. Important things. I learned how to escape and to sneak out. I learned that the world could be a harsh place, that you cannot ever trust everyone. She taught me that I have to hang onto the people that do care about me, and to never take them for granted," Gabrielle explained. _

_The young girl remained stoic as she obviously contained the feelings of anger and bitterness. "Without her, I would not be as independent, I wouldn't have grown up as fast as I did."_

_Gabrielle looked straight to the camera and forced a smile. "That is all for the most important people in my life. I would like to give a special thank you to everyone who was willing to be on camera for this. I would also like to thank Marcy for filming the parts in which I was on camera rather than behind it. _

Elisabeth took the dvd out and looked over to Jessica. She told her that she thinks Gabrielle was a little off when she said that she was going to make it after all.

Jessica sighed and nodded. "Yeah," she agreed. "You wanna go downstairs and find something to distract you?"

Elisabeth nodded and smiled. That to her sounded like the best idea all day.


	22. Holding On part 1

Chapter 21: Holding On (part 1)

Three weeks had passed. Gabrielle and Andy were still getting along, most of the time going on as if nothing were bothering Gabrielle. Now, she was sitting with Cori at the kitchen table while Jason was upstairs taking his nap.

Cori rested her head on her hands as she looked up to Gabrielle. "So, you really do care about when that little boy was conceived?" she questioned.

Gabrielle sat back in her chair and nodded. "Stupid isn't it?" she responded.

Cori sat up and shook her head. "You want to know whether or not she got pregnant while he was cheating on you. That's not a weird thing to be upset about," she explained. She then sat back and sighed, offering her a slight smile. "You two can never have anything simple can you?"

Gabrielle looked to her with confusion. "What do you mean?" she defensively implored.

Cori laughed. "You two fight, then you love each other, then you're just friends. It's almost like you two can't decide what you mean to each other. Then, when you do decide that you love each other, you're both scared to do anything to ruin it and then if it does get ruined, you turn into a complete bitch towards him for a period of time until you suddenly remember that you do like him."

"So, according to your calculations, I should start being a bitch within the next couple of months?" Gabrielle inquired.

"You telling me I'm wrong?" Cori questioned.

Gabrielle crossed her arms and stared at Cori, letting her know that she thought she was a little crazy. "Oh come on!" Cori laughed. "Don't tell me that you forgot about the pregnancy test incident."

Gabrielle relaxed a little and nodded. "Yes, yes I do. But I was seventeen. I think I'm a little more mature now," she assured her. "Besides, I caused a lot of trouble over that. I don't think I could ever do anything like that again."

_(Gabrielle was seventeen. She ran into the house along with Cori, Ally, and Cori's older cousin, Katie. "Dad!" Gabrielle anxiously called out. _

_House stepped into the living room and curiously eyed the three girls. "What?" he carefully asked. _

_Gabrielle waled up to him and smiled. "Well, you know that Andy and I had sex right?" she started. _

_House nodded, keeping his eyes on her. "Yes. I'm pretty sure that after walking in on you two, that I got the idea," he stated. _

_"Well, he just broke up with me. Right after the first time. You know? And it's been a few weeks, and I thought that I could have Cori's pregnant cousin here, Katie, take a test so that it could turn out positive, and that I could leave the test in front of his door with a note that says thanks for everything. What do you think?" she implored, smiling. _

_House smirked. "You'll kill him," he replied. _

_Gabrielle laughed. "That's the plan. You know if Lisa keeps any around here?" she asked. _

_"Probably. Just looked under the sink," he responded. _

_"All right," Gabrielle said and then turned to head up the stairs. _

_"Actually, have someone else look under the sink for you," House ordered. _

_Gabrielle stopped and uncomfortably looked to Cori and Ally, signaling for them to go ahead of her. _

_The next day, Andy came to the house and stood there on the porch, nervously gathering his words. Figuring that it was now or never, he forced himself to knock on the door. _

_Cuddy opened the door. "Andy?" she asked, surprised to see him there. She known that he and Gabrielle had broken up, and didn't think that Gabrielle would even talk to him for a while. _

_"Is Gabrielle here?" he timidly implored. _

_Cuddy shook her head. "She and her dad went out. They should be back in a little bit though," she answered. _

_Andy nodded as he absently stared down towards the floor. _

_Cuddy examined his expression. "Is there a message you would like me to give her?" she offered. "Or would you like to wait?" _

_Andy sighed and pulled the positive test out of his pocket and held it out to Cuddy. "Just tell her I found this and that she needs to talk to me with more than just a note," he said._

_Cuddy took the test and studied it, her eyes widened. "Are you sure that this is Gabi's?" _

_"Yeah, she left a note with it outside my door," he replied and then turned and left._

_Once Gabrielle and House returned home, Gabrielle headed straight up to her room. Cuddy wanted to talk to her alone before she mentioned anything to House. "Gabi? We need to talk! Now!" Cuddy announced, knocking on the door. _

_Gabrielle went and opened the door to her bedroom. "What is it?" she questioned, leaning against the door frame. _

_Cuddy eyed her for a moment, wondering how she could be so calm right now. "Is there anything at all that you would like to tell me?" she implored, offering her the chance to confess. _

_Gabrielle stood straight up and thought for a moment, trying to think of something that she could be in trouble for. "No," she answered. _

_"I see," Cuddy angrily sighed. "That's odd considering that Andy came over today while you were gone with some pretty big news," she announced. _

_Gabrielle's eyes widened. "Oh shit," she gasped.) _

"That was a very bad night," Gabrielle mentioned. She then looked over to Cori. "Would you believe that my dad went along with her and then laughed his ass off while she had me take two more tests to prove that that test was not mine?"

"Yes actually," she replied. "What did Andy say?"

Gabrielle laughed. "Not a damn thing to me for at least three months," she informed her.

Cori laughed, but then settled down. Her smile faded and she showed more concern. "And how are you going to react if you're little theory about Missy's son is right?"

Gabrielle instantly stopped laughing and shrugged, looking to Cori with regret. "Most likely the same way he did when he found out I was just getting back at him," she admitted.

Cori sat there for a moment and watched Gabrielle, she could tell that she was truly starting to get worried. She struck a nerve that she maybe shouldn't have hit. "You two are getting along well now, right?"

Gabrielle nodded. "Yeah," she breathed out. "We still wake up, I make him breakfast, he leaves and then I get ready and leave. I come home, take care of Jason and then make dinner. Andy and I both get Jason ready for bed and then I tuck him in at night. We sit up together, watch some tv, now mostly we do it just about every night. Then we go to sleep, wake up and repeat the cycle." She looked looked down to her empty glass sitting on the table. "No one would even notice the difference."

"I think so far, you're the only one who does," Cori stated, causing Gabrielle to abruptly look up to her, blank expression.

ooo

Donnie and Elisabeth sat out in the back yard. The leaves were changing color, and that was the time of year that Elisabeth had always enjoyed the most, so they both decided that they would rather be outside than inside. They sat next to each other on the steps right outside the back door. Elisabeth was trying to teach him some sign language.

"What about, I think we should leave now?" he implored. That was something he figured that he should know how to understand if he took her anywhere.

Elisabeth laughed and then showed him. She took her notepad and wrote him a small note. She asked him if he was going to be taking her a lot of places that she would want to get out of quickly.

Donnie took the note and laughed. "I don't know, maybe," he answered. "I don't know what you like yet."

Elisabeth looked down towards the cement and softly smiled. The sleeves of her dark red sweater went past her wrists and covered part of her hands as she started to fiddle with her fingers. Looking up to him, she brushed her long, dark brown her behind her ear and smiled. She then took her note pad and wrote him another note. She would rather do this than go out to a bunch of places.

Donnie accepted the note and read it over. "Okay," he responded, looking up to her. His hazel eyes catching her gray eyes. Something seemed different in her, for the past month, there had been something she had been hiding. Ever since the dinner that they went out to together. She was still hanging out with him, so he figured that it wasn't him, but there was still something bothering her, and he was starting to get curious. "Is something wrong?"

Elisabeth was taken aback by the question. She just watched him for a brief moment and shook her head.

Donnie nodded. "Okay, you just seem like you're constantly thinking about something I guess," he explained and then looked over and picked up a random stick and started running the tip against the concrete.

Elisabeth watched him and sighed. It wasn't fair to not tell him. He was over here, concerned about her. Then within the next couple of months she would be dropping out of school and just disappearing without giving anyone any explanation. He cared enough to ask, and she didn't want him fearing out when she stopped showing up at school.

The only problem? She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want the sympathy and pity in place of the genuine kindness and friendship. Later, she would tell him. Later.

ooo

House read the note that Tommy had handed to him and then looked over the paper to Tommy, who was standing before him as House sat in the chair out in the living room. "You told the teacher that she was an idiot because she said that you should leaner to listen to others and be more respectful?" House questioned.

Tommy stood there, cockily smirking. "Yes."

House folded the paper back up and set it down on the table. "Okay," he casually replied.

Tommy looked down at the paper and then quickly looked up to him. "You really don't care?" he questioned.

House sighed. "You spoke your opinion and you're right. Why would I be mad about that?" he implored.

Tommy shrugged and then headed up to his room.

House stood up and headed out to the kitchen where he saw Cuddy standing at the window, watching Elisabeth and Donnie out in the back yard. "Spying is a crime," he mentioned as he went and stood beside her.

Cuddy smiled, keeping her eyes on the two. "Cute isn't it?"

House just stared out at the two. "A boy mindlessly spitting out bullshit to convince a girl to trust him so that he could do what ever he wants with her. Adorable," he remarked.

Cuddy rolled her eyes and then turned to face him. "Yes, that is exactly what they are doing right now. Planning when they can get some action," she responded.

House grabbed her shoulders. "That's what I was doing when I was twelve," he informed her.

Cuddy looked up to him and smiled. "Somehow, I don't doubt that," she stated and then reached up and kissed him.

House smiled to her as she pulled back from him. His eyes glued on her's. "See? My plan worked."

Cuddy laughed as she turned and walked away, with House just watching her as she left the room.

**This chapter is dedicated to my best friend's grandfather. She just got the news today, so I''m going with her out of town to the funeral. I'll be gone for a little while, so I have no idea the next time that I'll update.**


	23. Holding On part 2

Chapter 22: Holding On (part 2)

Elisabeth woke up in the middle of the night to a coughing fit. Trying to keep quiet, she buried her head in her pillow to muffle the sound. After about a minute, she raised her head, gasping for air. Her chest was hurting, but she ignored it. The tears streaming down her eyes. She couldn't let any one know though, she couldn't get people worried for no reason. Instead, she sat up and started hugging her pillow, hoping that the pain would pass. Telling herself that everything was worse in the middle of the night, that if this had happened in the day, it would be no big deal.

As she started to calm down, she looked around the darkened room. The place was quiet, meaning, no one was rushing over to check on her. Good.

She took the pillow and set it back down in it's spot and attempted to lay back down and fall asleep. Her chest still hurt, but she decided that she could ignore it for now. There was no use in getting worked up over it.

ooo

Gabrielle got into bed with Andy and watched for a minute as he watched tv. "So, Thanksgiving is coming up," she informed him.

Andy, without even looking over to her, nodded. "Yes it is," he casually responded.

"You know I'm having it here this year, right?"

Andy looked over to her. "Are you trying to get somewhere with this?" he implored.

"I just wanted to know if there was anyone that you wanted to invite. You know, like your son," she suggested. Gabrielle was curious about this boy. If she could ask him his birthday, she could figure out what she wanted to know. Besides, it was no secret that Andy was curious, and she wasn't about to be the one to keep him from meeting his son. This way, he could meet him with her there, because she knew that Missy would have to be there. The last thing that she wanted was a chance for Andy and Missy to be together alone.

Andy looked to her with genuine surprise. "Let me get this straight, you want to invite Missy and Johnny over here?" he questioned.

Gabrielle nodded. "I think you should meet him. I mean, he is your son," she explained. Even if there was an ulterior motive behind it, she did truly believe that they should meet each other.

Andy smiled to her. "All right, I'll get a hold of her tomorrow and let her know."

Gabrielle returned the smile. "Good," she replied.

Without another word, she leaned over and kissed him. Although she still loved him, there was a question of trust now. There was a hurt that made no sense to her, but still made a huge difference in how she saw him, how she felt about him. After all this time, one would think that it wouldn't matter, but it did. The kiss that she gave him, was merely a charade. It was covering up the insecurity and betrayal that she currently felt. If she found out however, that Johnny came along after they had broken up, things would change. They would go back to what they had before. If not, then she would have to talk to him, confess what was going through her mind.

ooo

Elisabeth awoke next morning to the alarm.

"Good morning Ellie," Jessica greeted as she got down from her bed. She went over to the dresser and grabbed her clothes. "I'm gonna go grab the bathroom before the princess does. I'll make sure to let you have it before she does. Okay?"

Elisabeth sat up and nodded. Her chest still hurt, but she went ahead and forced a smile until Jessica left the room. It was after that, that she realized that she was still having trouble breathing. Sitting there, she lowered her head and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down, convince herself that she was fine.

As soon as she opened her eyes, she discovered a couple of smeared blood marks on her shirt. They weren't big marks, but they were noticeable. She started trying to figure out where the blood came from, then, her eyes widened as she remembered. Last night, the coughing fit. Quickly, she turned and lifted her pillow. On the back side, she saw a red stain where she had been coughing.

Right now, she wanted to cry. All she wanted to do was sit there and cry to herself, forgetting about everything that was going on in her life. That wasn't possible though. Holding back her tears, she sat the pillow back down, making sure that the blood stain was down so that Jessica didn't see it when she came back into the room.

The next thing she did was force herself out of bed, which was harder than usual this morning. She seemed to be having a harder time waking up, she was just really tired. It didn't matter though, she had to ignore it and quickly get changed before anyone saw the blood on her shirt. Once dressed for the day, she waited for her turn in the bathroom and then headed downstairs where House, Cuddy, Jessica, and Tommy were sitting at the table eating their breakfast.

"Woah, what's wrong with you?" Tommy blurted out right away.

House and Cuddy both looked up to Elisabeth with concern. Standing there in the doorway, she looked weak, fragile, pale and somewhat disoriented. Cuddy got up and walked over to her. "Honey? Are you feeling sick?" she implored, knowing that the answer had to be yes.

Elisabeth stood there and nodded. There was no getting out of it now.

Cuddy sighed and felt the young girl's forehead. "Greg, she's got a fever."

Elisabeth looked over to House who just looked over to Cuddy, as if he were pondering whether or not to ask what he should do about it. She wasn't scared. Not now, not anymore. It didn't matter. Last night, and this morning she had been a little scared, but it passed. Being scared wasn't going to change anything, so she decided not to waste her time on it.

"You want me to stay home with her?" House offered.

Cuddy looked to him, let down. She was hoping to hear something good, that this wasn't all that bad of a situation and why it was going to be okay. She needed to hear it. Instead, she was let down. "No, I'll stay with her," Cuddy flatly answered.

Elisabeth looked over and saw Jessica. She was trying to hide the fact that she was worrying. Jessica quickly looked down to the table, as if she were ashamed to have been caught. Cuddy told her to go back upstairs and put her pajamas back on, and she obliged. Slowly, she left the room and carefully made her way back upstairs. Along the way, she passed Rachel, who looked like she was too busy to even notice that she looked sick. Good. One less person to answer questions from.

Elisabeth entered the bedroom and decided to grab a new shirt instead of the one that she wore last night. The one from last night, she shoved under the bed and hoped that no one would check under there for a while. The longer that she could go without anyone finding out about the blood, the better.

The young girl climbed back into bed and pulled out her journal.

_Sometimes I wonder if this was all worth it. Last night, I started coughing up blood. Not too much, but enough to let me know. I can't possibly have that much time left. This could all be an over reaction, but I doubt it. When I get sick, I don't get sick like everyone else. I don't do anything like anyone else. I can't just get a cold and be miserable for a week, I can't just get a cough and be fine in a day. Instead, I sit here couching up blood and waiting for my breathing to get even worse to the point where I'm back in the hospital. I'm sick and tired of sitting here, slowly falling apart while everyone else around me watches me with pity, wishing that they could do something. There is nothing that anyone could ever do. It's over, and it don't matter any more. None of it does. I could have been the best person out there, the nicest and sweetest and I would still be dying. I could have been the worst person ever, and I would still be here dying. The only difference in the end is the amount of people that would miss me, and right now, I don't really care who misses me. I won't be here to see it. _

_I don't even think that I want anyone to miss me. I hate seeing people cry over me anymore. All it does is remind me of the pain that I have caused to others through out my life. I know that my family can't help it, they love me. They have to realize though, that I love them too, and I know that if it were anyone else here that was going through what I'm going through, they would hate the idea of me being miserable over their misfortunes. I just want this to all stop already. Not just the things that have been going on recently, but ever since I was little. The special treatment, the smiles of relief that my parents would show every birthday. _

Elisabeth sat there, tears streaming down her face as she stared at the page in her journal. Every feeling that had been pent up for a while was right there in front of her. All she wanted to do at this moment was become numb to everything. She wanted to some how just block out the entire world and forget about everything and everyone. Just let herself not care for a few hours. She wanted to forget the fact that her father was most likely on the edge of some sort of break down that would occur as soon as she died, to forget that her mother was grieving the loss of her daughter before her time even came, to forget that she had one sister who needed her to get through the day and the other who needed her to let her know when she was over doing things and when boys liked her, that she had a brother that she was leaving behind before she could teach him how to ruin Rachel's day without getting in trouble.

She closed the book and laid back down. No use in fighting the sleep that she desperately needed any more. She was stuck here all day anyways, and there was no other way to escape reality.

ooo

House sat in his office. It was more towards the end of the day as he just stared at a file, hoping to get his mind off his daughter at home and get some sort of idea of what was wrong with the patient. He needed something to distract him, but his distraction wasn't working for him.

The door opened, and he looked up, pretending to have been rudely interrupted.

"I don't think that this patient is going to make it," Morgan announced after approaching his desk. She could see through his little act. She had been able to get it out of her co-workers what was going on with his little girl at home.

House suspiciously raised his eyebrow. "Really? That seems odd considering that we got him stable a few hours ago and he was taking to the treatment," he stated. Either she was lying, or Chase was lying when he had told him that everything was okay, and so far, he trusted Chase more than he trusted Morgan.

"People crash, and people die," she mentioned.

House just watched her as she walked over to his bookcase. "The only thing that kept me from being a doctor for a while was that I hated to see people die," she mentioned and then looked over to House to see how he was reacting. So far, he looked like he was just trying to figure out what was wrong with her. "When I was younger, my older sister died," she informed him.

"I don't give a damn about your past life or why you became a doctor. I hired you based on what you can do, not how much I pitied you," he spat and then pretended to go back to his work.

Morgan stood there a moment and crossed her arms. "You've watched someone die before too haven't you? Someone close to you?" she implored. Her eyes were glued to him.

House slowly looked up to her. "What the hell are you trying to do here?" he questioned. There was something seriously wrong with all of this, and he didn't like any of it.

Morgan remained stoic. "I'm upset," she flatly stated. "And I just wanted to know that i'm not the only to have sat there and watched someone I love die right before me while my entire family fell apart. My parents growing further and further from each other while us kids grew to resent them after a while," she explained, waiting to see when she had hit a sore spot. She needed to catch his interest.

House sighed as he looked up. "Either go write a soap opera out of it or go do your job. I don't care what you do just as long as you're out of here and that patient is living," he explained.

Morgan shrugged. "Fine," she replied and then started to turn and leave. "Just remember, you can talk to me about the one you watched. Any time at all," she announced as she left.

House just sat there, watching her walk down the hall. "Great," he sighed. He knew what she was wanting to do now. Him. Someone told her about Elisabeth and she was trying to use it to get him.

**Okay, so I was able to update a lot sooner than I thought. That could be considered a good thing. I know this chapter is pretty depressing, but I think everyone who is still reading this story at this point knew to expect it sooner or later. I was also just with a family, at a funeral service so I wasn't in the happiest of moods while I wrote this. I do hope you like it though. Let me know what you think. **


	24. The Ice is Getting Thinner

Chapter 23: The Ice is Getting Thinner

House stood in front of his team. "Now, since he is STABLE!" he started, glaring towards Morgan. "We should start trying to figure out why his white blood cell count is so high. We already ruled out infection, and he's negative for leukemia," he explained.

Morgan looked around the room, but noticed that no one was really watching her, or even look ads if they were curious. Looking back to House, she raised her hand.

"The show off in the back," he called, pointing his cane towards her.

"I think we should check and see if there is any internal damage done to the liver," she suggested.

House just looked to her for a moment. "All right, Chase, Reynolds, and Foreman. You three each go run a reasonable test for what ever you think it might be. The first one to come up with something gets to leave early," House announced.

The three men stood up and exchanged looks with each other. They each started to pick up on the fact that there was definitely something going on between House and Morgan. it wasn't anything good, most likely a fight.

As soon as the three had left, House stood there and leaned against the back of a chair as he stared at Morgan, waiting for her to speak.

Morgan had become uncomfortable in his gaze and slightly slumped down in her seat. "Why don't I get to run any tests?" she questioned, trying to hide how nervous she really was right now. She knew that this had to do with the stunt that she had pulled, lying about the patient's condition and asking about death.

"Well gee, in your mind this man is still unstable. I don't think I can trust you to run any tests on him," House stated and then stood up and limped over to the coffee pot. "Maybe we should have you checked out," he suggested.

Morgan sighed as she watched him get his coffee. She knew that sooner or later he would be asking her questions and she was going to have to have the answers. The only problem was that she was having trouble thinking of anything that sounded good to tell him.

"I'm waiting," he stated before taking a sip.

"What?" Morgan asked, hoping to stall a few more seconds.

"You would think that if you graduate med school that you should be able to conduct a conversation. See, this is naturally the part where you respond and tell me why you did what you did," he condescendingly explained to her.

Morgan looked down and nodded, trying to think. "I was just testing something," she stated.

House nodded. "Yes, most people do test me to see how long they can annoy me until I fire them," he responded. He looked down to her, waiting for her to say something else, but there was nothing. Instead, she just sat there, staring down to her hands that were resting on the table. "Listen, I didn't think that I had to tell anyone these rules, but I guess I have to tell you. One, never ever try to get with me. Two, and more importantly, never lie to me about the status of a patient. Ever. Even if I know that you're lying, you can still get fired for that," he sternly explained.

Morgan looked up to him. "Does this mean that I still have a job?" she inquired.

"Just until you screw up, and it doesn't have to be anything major either. A small simple mistake could get you fired," he answered before leaving the room and going into his office.

Morgan sat there for a moment before she figured that it would be best to go and join the others in running a few tests.

ooo

Andy sat in the break room. He took his cellphone out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table. After a moment of staring down at it, thinking about what he should be doing, and what he wants to do, he stuffs his hand back into his pocket and pulls out a piece of folded up paper. The paper with Missy's phone number on it. The number that was given to him in the letter. The one that she told him to use to talk to her.

Taking a deep breath, he reached out and grabbed the phone and started dialing the number. There was no sense in putting it off, he wanted to call her and now was the perfect time. "Hello? Missy?" he choked out as soon as se answered.

Andy slightly laughed. "Yeah. Hey, it's Andy. I thought I would let you know, I am interested in seeing you again," he told her.

ooo

Morgan sat down in the lab with Reynolds as she waited for a result on the spinal fluid that she had taken.

Reynolds sat next to her, and looked over to her. She looked angry, almost ready to lose it at anytime. "What was that about earlier with you and House?" he questioned.

Morgan quickly looked over to him. "None of your business," she hissed.

Reynolds looked back forward and smirked. "Really?" he asked. "Because some of us think that you might be fantasizing about our boss in bed."

Morgan nodded with a slight smile on her face. "What about it?" she implored. There was no use in lying, if she was that obvious about it, then everyone else knew by now. Besides, there was no harm in having others know. It was also a good chance to freak him out and see how he would react.

Reynolds quickly turned to her. "You know that he's married right?" he questioned.

"Of course I do, that's what makes it more interesting," she nonchalantly replied.

"So you're going to keep up on him?" Reynolds asked, finding it hard to believe what he was hearing.

"Of course," she answered and then smiled up to him. "I'm not a quitter."

ooo

Cuddy walked out of the kitchen and stopped in the living room to check on Elisabeth. She was home from school again, today made it a full week that she had missed. Cuddy was now seriously considering just pulling her out of school all together at this point. There was no point in doing well in school for her anymore. It wasn't like she had to concentrate on getting into college or getting a job or anything like that.

She softly walked to the couch and peeked over the back of it, to see Elisabeth sleeping. With a bittersweet smile, she watched her daughter for a moment and then slowly walked away towards the stairs. She figured that she would take this opportunity to go change the sheets in Elisabeth and Jessica's bedroom.

Getting to their room, she went ahead and tackled Jessica's bed first. She climbed to the top of the ladder and pulled off the blankets and the sheets, and pillow cases and tossed them into a pile on the floor. Sighing, she climbed down and started on Elisabeth's bed. The first thing she grabbed was the pillow to take the case off of it. Her mouth fell slightly open at the first sight of the blood on the pillowcase.

Keeping her eyes on the dark red stain, she slowly sat down on the edge of the bed. It wasn't much of a surprise, it was something that she had seen from Elisabeth before when she was sick. She knew why Elisabeth hadn't told her, she wanted everyone to stop worrying about her. What bothered her the most though, was the fact that now, there was no saying that she could get better. There was no hoping that she might make it another year. She was told that this was the end, and here it was, the proof right before her.

Hesitantly, she tossed the pillowcase onto the pile with the rest of the things to be washed. She had to let it go, there was no way that she could just sit there and dwell on it. Instead, she held back her tears and frustration as she removed the sheets and blankets from the bed and then took everything down to the washer.

On her way back up to put clean sheets on the beds, she saw Elisabeth sitting up on the couch. "I didn't wake you did?" she asked.

Elisabeth looked over to her and shook her head. She could see that there was something bothering her, she seemed a little shaky, looking like she wanted to vomit. She didn't ask her what was wrong though, instead she mustered a smile for her, just something to let her know that she was okay.

The door opened, causing them to both turn their heads. House came in with the three kids. "Hope you don't mind, I left early and got them," he explained.

Cuddy shook her head. She was actually glad that he did that. "It's fine," she responded.

While Rachel and Tommy rushed up the stairs to their rooms, Jessica stopped for a moment and looked over to see how Elisabeth was doing. Once she saw that she was sitting up and smiling, she returned the smile and ran up stairs with the others.

"You sure don't seem fine," House observed as he put his coat away in the closet.

Cuddy shrugged. "What do you mean?" she questioned, trying to cover up how shaken up she truly was.

House suspiciously looked her over and then nodded. "If you say so," he replied and then went over to sit down by Elisabeth. The only reason that he didn't keep prying was because he already knew. It wasn't a huge secret around here, Elisabeth was sick, real sick. The only reason that she wasn't at the hospital was because it wouldn't make that much of a difference at this point. Cuddy was there all day with her, watching her, and he knew that any second now, she was going to be coming to him telling him about it.

Cuddy watched him for a moment and then dragged herself up the steps to put sheets and blankets on the beds. She stopped in to Jessica's room. "Hey, I'm going to grab some clean sheets from the cabinet. You mind giving me a hand?" she requested.

Jessica looked over to her and shook her head. "I'll be there in a minute," she answered.

Cuddy nodded and then headed down the hall and opened the cabinet. As she stood there, she felt her breathing starting to become slightly more rapid. Seconds later, she rushed to the bathroom and vomited. After she was done, she sat back against the bathtub and started sobbing.

"Mom?" Jessica called from the hallway. She entered her parent's bedroom and heard Cuddy sobbing. "Mom?" she asked, standing in the doorway. She wanted to do something to help, but she didn't know what to do. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked as she and Tommy rushed down the hall and into the room. They both turned and saw Cuddy. "I'll go get daddy," Rachel offered and then quickly exited the room.

Tommy just remained quiet as he stood by Jessica. They exchanged looks for a second, as if questioning each other what they should do, but neither of them actually did anything.

"You two! Out!" House ordered as he made his way towards the room.

Both Jessica and Tommy obliged and left the room.

House stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. "Looks like someone's having an emotional breakdown," he mentioned as he went and sat down next to her on the ground.

Cuddy looked up to him, her eyes full of pain. "I can't do it!" she cried to him. "I can't do this! I can't sit here and watch her slowly die Greg."

House looked to her with sympathy as he put his arm around her. "Doesn't look like we have a choice," he grimly replied. It was hard for him to hear this. That was his daughter too down there, and he knew that when it did happen, he was going to lose it. He adverted his eyes and looked off to the side. "It's gonna happen whether we like it or not."

Cuddy buried her head in his shirt, her body shaking in his arms as she continued to sob. She hated what she was hearing from him, but she knew that it was true. There was nothing that he could say to her that would change any of this. Nothing. After a few minutes, she pulled herself away, heavily breathing. "I don't think I can handle that," she hoarsely whimpered, her glazed over eyes glued to his.

He didn't think that he could handle it either, and even though he knew that she already knew that, he wasn't about to say it. "Eventually you'll start to move on," he stated, keeping his eyes on her's.

"I hope so," she replied and then laid her head back down on his chest.


	25. Preparing

Chapter 24: Preparing

Andy walked quietly up the stairs. It was close to Jason's bedtime, so he knew that Gabrielle would be getting him ready for bed. As he got to the hallway, he could hear Jason laughing in his room.

With a guilt filled smile, he stopped in the doorway and watched as Gabrielle read to Jason. They were snuggled up together in the chair. She was was going all out for him, doing the different voices for the characters. Reaching the end of the book, she tickled Jason causing him to laugh and then kissed him on the cheek.

Gabrielle looked up and smiled to Andy. "You think you're ready for bed yet?" she questioned and then looked back down to the toddler on her lap.

"No!" Jason replied, right before yawning.

Gabrielle laughed. "You know, that yawning thing tends to ruin your argument," she stated as she stood up, holding him in her arms. "You can try it again though tomorrow night."

As she carried the little boy over to his crib, she noticed that he had already started dozing off to sleep. With a smile, she gently laid him down in the crib and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Good night Jason. Mommy loves you," she whispered before standing back up and heading towards the doorway.

"You're late," Gabrielle said as she turned the light off and closed the door behind her.

"I was getting out of trip. With everything going on, I thought it would be better to stick back here," he replied.

Gabrielle smirked as she folded her arms. "I see," she responded, nodding to him before taking off to the staircase.

Andy watched her walk away and caught up to her halfway down the stairs. "What was that?" he implored.

Gabrielle stopped and turned to the side, leaning back against the railing. "You, are a bad lair," she announced.

"What do you mean?" Andy inquired, carefully taking a couple steps closer to her.

Gabrielle softly laughed. "Listen, before you go out and buy a plane ticket and book a hotel room, you should check to make sure that I don't have to use the credit card the same day," she told him before turning and continuing down the stairs.

Andy looked to her and and sighed. Now, he knew that she knew. "You called the bank?" he asked, heading down to the living room.

"You betcha," Gabrielle answered as she went and sat on the couch. Turning, she smiled to him. "I bet you talked to her today too, didn't ya?" she questioned.

Andy stopped for a moment and studied her. He was scared and confused at the same time. "You're smiling because you're about to throw me out aren't you?" he asked.

Gabrielle shrugged. "I don't know," she sighed. "I mean, you did chicken out, and all you've done so far is just talk to her. I can't seriously be mad over a couple of phone calls and an attempt that you backed out of. You haven't actually done anything. Yet," she explained, her smile disappearing instantly with her last word.

Andy listened to what she was saying and took the little warning. "I'm sorry," he said.

Gabrielle looked him straight in the eyes. "Listen. You're fine now, but you are getting me nervous. I want to trust you, and I want to think that you are completely over her. Again, I understand wanting to see your son. That's fine with me. What I don't like is the sneaking around. You do it again and you are out of here," she sternly warned.

"I understand," Andy flatly replied.

Gabrielle nodded and then sat back in the cushion. "Any added stress is the last thing I need right now," she stated.

"I know," Andy breathed out as he patted her leg.

"I think if you honestly did know, you wouldn't have pulled that little stunt you pulled today," she argued.

Andy just looked to her. Nothing to say to that.

ooo

House sat in his office. He had called Gabrielle and told her to come by and see him after she was done at school.

On his desk before him, he had a couple of notes and plastic bags with medicine in them. Cuddy's breakdown had gotten him thinking about how hard this was really going to be on everyone. He knew before hand that no one was just going to take this easily, but it showed him just how bad it was going hit.

"Daddy?" Gabrielle softly called out as she peeked her head into the door. She could see that there was something on his mind, and didn't want to interrupt anything.

House looked over to her and leaned forward onto his desk. "Come here," he instructed.

Gabrielle eyed the contents on his desk and closed the door behind her. "What is this?" she implored as she approached him. She sat down and carefully looked at each item.

House sighed. "A couple nights ago, Lisa had a bit of a breakdown," he informed her. "This is for when Ellie dies."

Gabrielle solemnly looked up from the desk to him. Now, she knew what was going on with him. "You want me to take care of them," she whispered.

House looked up to her. "I can't," he informed her.

Gabrielle nodded. She understood. Part of her though resented the fact that he left her with the responsibility of making sure that everyone made it through the first couple of days. It was instinct for her to step in and take care of them, but it felt like he was starting to take it for granted.

"I know," she flatly responded.

House sighed and grabbed the bags to hold them out for her. "Both these bags contain the same exact thing. It's a sedative. You have the medicine and the syringes," he explained.

Gabrielle nodded as she took them and placed them into her purse.

"Now," he started as he picked up the folded pieces of paper. "These are your instructions. I have the amount that you can give everyone and how often they can have them, depending on how bad of a night they're having. I have everyone listed on here, but this is mainly for Lisa and Jessica. I also have on here reminding you to leave Tommy alone. I already went through his room and did the same thing that I used to do with your things when you would start getting depressed. Also, Rachel is handling this the best out of everyone, but I would still check up on her just to make sure," he instructed and then handed the papers to her.

Gabrielle accepted the set of instructions and placed them in her purse. "Anything else that I should know?" she questioned, almost bitterly.

House ignored the undertone and shook his head.

Gabrielle nodded and then stood. "If you need anything, let me know," she told him before she turned and left. As she got to the door, she saw that Morgan was about to enter the room.

Gabrielle stopped before the door and shoved Morgan back as soon as she opened the door. "Get out!" Gabrielle ordered. "We've got enough problems. We don't need a stupid slut coming in here causing any trouble," she hissed before leaving.

Morgan stood there, disbelieving what had just happened and then stormed into his office. "Did you just see that?" she questioned. "She pushed me!"

House sat back and nodded. "What about it?' he asked. "She doesn't work for me. I actually like her a lot better than I like you," he explained.

Morgan huffed as she turned and left the room. There was no use in trying anything right now, she was too worked up to even think about what to say to him.

House smiled as he watched her leave. It was getting to the point where he would just get irritated when he would see her.

ooo

Rachel sat out in the backyard with Jessica. They were both sitting on the steps as they wearily stared out before them.

"You're starting to worry me," Jessica admitted.

"Yeah? How?" Rachel implored.

Jessica looked over to her. "You didn't spend eternity in the bathroom this morning. You only spent ten minutes in there. You also didn't make yourself more noticeable whenever Gerald was visible. I know that you two are like dating or something, but I thought that you still wanted his attention," she explained.

Rachel shrugged. "Didn't feel like being noticed today," she answered.

Jessica nodded and went back to staring forward. "I didn't even wanna go to school," she admitted. "It's weird going without Ellie. I don't like it," she stated.

"I know," Rachel flatly responded.

"How much longer do you think she's got?" Jessica questioned.

Rachel looked over and saw her looking down to the ground. "I don't know," she replied, wishing that she could say it was longer than soon.

Jessica just got up and headed back inside, leaving Rachel out there by herself. She heavily sighed and waited a moment before she slowly got up and headed back inside.


	26. Different Now

Chapter 25: Different Now

Andy sat in bed and watched Gabrielle as she silently got changed for bed. "Are you by any chance still mad at me?" he cautiously asked.

"A little," Gabrielle angrily huffed. She stood there, her back to him as she pulled her shirt on, wondering whether or not it was still worth being upset with him. She had something else, something a little more disturbing at the moment to occupy her mind.

She turned around to face him and hesitantly walked over to the bed. She had kept her eyes down to the floor. "Were you aware that I stopped off to see my daddy today?" she asked, looking to him.

"No," Andy answered, looking to her with concern.

Gabrielle sighed. "Well, he handed me meds to hand out to keep mom and Jessica from going insane and told me how to take care of Rachel of Tommy," she explained.

Andy sat up and grabbed her hands. "He wants you to step in for him?" he questioned.

Gabrielle bitterly laughed in spite of the situation. "Yes! Yes he does!" she responded and then pulled her hands from his grip. The more she thought about it, the more worked up she was getting over the whole thing.

In attempt to try and calm herself down, she pulled her hands from his grip and paced over to the other side of the room. She crossed her arms, keeping her mind on her breathing as she tried to stay calm. "That selfish bastard didn't even stop to think that I might not be able to handle all of this," she she forcefully spat, desperately trying to keep her voice down as to not wake Jason.

Andy threw the covers off of him. He was about to get up and go over to her, but she hadn't finished yet. There weren't many times that she opened up to anyone, including him. Granted, she opened up to him more than she did anyone else, but it was still a rare occasion. She needed to talk about this and he didn't want to cut her off, knowing that if he did, she would never pick up where she quit.

Tears of frustration were now streaking her face as she turned back to face Andy. "I don't mind helping out, and I have no problem taking care of the kids while my parents step back and take a small break from all of this, I would have even offered to do that. But I can't just completely be expected to take his place," she harshly explained. She paused for a moment as her expression began to soften. "It just feels like my own father, the one that I thought loved me is just using me. It was like he didn't even care about what I might be going through. My feelings meant nothing to him," she stated through tears.

Andy got up and walked over to her. Now, she was finished. He put his arm around her and led her over to the bed and sat down, guiding her to sit down on his lap. He wrapped his arms around her and embraced her. "I think he's just used to you doing that for him," he gently stated, trying to comfort her.

"That's not the point," Gabrielle sobbed into his shoulder. She pulled back, locking her eyes on his. "You expect me to make you breakfast in the morning, but you thank me by making it for me on Sundays. My mom used to always expect me to help out with the babies, but she would still thank me and make sure that it didn't interfere with school, or my weekends too much. My brother and sisters expect me to help them do the things that mom and dad tell them not to do, but they still at least thank me," she informed him. She took a deep breath and gathered her composure. "There was no asking, there was no thank you. He didn't even give me a chance to turn it down. And even if he did, what sort of selfish brat would that make me? Punish them because I'm mad at him right?" she implored, keeping her voice as steady as she possibly could.

Andy sighed. "Look," he firmly started. "You have to realize that this is not all on you. If Ellie were our daughter, I would be expected to be there for you and Jason. Yes, the rest of your family should be supportive, but it's not Rachel's job to make sure that you're mentally stable and hold your hand while you try to move on with everyday life. You have to stop feeling responsible for everything."

"I wish it was just that easy," she replied and then laid her head back down on his shoulder.

ooo

Andy walked into the hospital and headed for Cuddy's office. He had to lie to get extra time for lunch, but it was worth it. He wasn't about to sit there and watch Gabrielle fall apart because her father was being stupid. Maybe if Cuddy knew, she could get him o do something to make it up to Gabrielle. Something little, just enough to show her that he wasn't just trying to use her.

Andy opened the door and poked his head in to see whether or not she was busy. "Lisa?" he asked. "Do you have a minute?"

Cuddy looked up from her desk. She was surprised to see him there and was starting to wonder if there was something wrong. "Yeah, sure," she answered with concern.

Andy stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He went ahead and took a seat right before her desk. "I think your husband is planning on bailing out on you when Ellie dies," he started. He knew that she probably already knew, but it was the only way to lead up to what he really wanted to talk to her about, Gabrielle.

Cuddy looked up to him, perplexed. She was trying to figure out whether or not he really thought that was news to her. He and Gabrielle had been together for a while and she knew that he had to have an idea of how House reacted during these types of situations. "I think you're about thirty years too late on that warning. I learned a long time ago that he can't handle this type of situation," she explained to him, an undertone of bitterness showing itself.

Andy sighed. "Either way, he saw Gabrielle yesterday and handed her sedatives and told her how to handle the kids when it happens," he informed her. His eyes stuck on her, waiting to see if she had known anything about what had happened.

Cuddy was speechless for a moment. Yes, it was pretty obvious that he wouldn't be there, and she did think that Gabrielle was going to step in for him, but she didn't think anything should be forced on her like that. "Did she by any chance ask him for this stuff?" she wanted to be sure of what she was hearing before she talked to House, or rather yelled at him.

Andy just shook his head. She didn't know.

"I see," Cuddy whispered, looking down to her desk. She had to think about what she was going to say to House. In a way though, she should have known to expect an action like this from him. It was House. It was, in now way an acceptable excuse, but she knew better than to put it past him.

"Last night she was crying about how he was just using her and he didn't care about whether or not she thought that she could do it. She's more hurt than anything," he stated.

Cuddy nodded, keeping her eyes down to the floor. Sighing, she looked up to Andy. "Thank you for letting me know," she said and then stood up and started for the door.

Andy just sat there and sighed. Hopefully, this would get fixed in a short amount of time. There was no way that he could handle Gabrielle feeling hurt like she did last night. He hadn't seen her like that in a while, and he was happy to think that he might never have to see her like that again.

ooo

House sat on the couch in Wilson's office as Wilson looked over an x-ray that he had handed to him. "What do you think?" House questioned.

"It's definitely malignant?" Wilson asked, looking to him over the x-ray.

"I don't know, I think I might have screwed up the results. Maybe I should go back into the patient and explain that I didn't know what I was looking at the first time around," House remarked.

Wilson laid the x-ray down and sighed. "Well, I guess he is my patient now," he stated. He then looked up and saw House playing with his cane.

"Are you waiting for me to volunteer to go tell him?" House questioned.

"No," Wilson answered before looking back down to his desk.

"House?" Cuddy called out as she knocked on the door.

Both men turned to look at the door. "He's here!" Wilson called back to her.

House rolled his eyes. He knew that he was about to get yelled at for something. He could just hear it in her voice, even if she wasn't screeching at him yet.

Cuddy entered the room and made sure to close the door behind her. As soon as she got to House, she placed her hands on her hips. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she firmly questioned. "Andy just came by to tell me that you made your daughter cry last night because she thinks that you're using her as your personal little stand in for when you decide that you can't grow up and actually deal with something!" she informed him, on the verge of yelling.

"You made Gabi cry?" Wilson implored.

House just sat there, watching her and ignoring Wilson's question. He did feel bad about Gabrielle now, but he wasn't about to show Cuddy that he was caving into her. "She never told me that she wasn't able to do it," he stated.

Cuddy sighed as she turned back towards Wilson. "He gave her the instructions on how to take care of us when Ellie dies," she told him and then turned back to House.

"Wow! That's a new low even for you," Wilson commented.

"Don't you have something you should be doing?" House asked, not liking the fact that he was helping Cuddy. It didn't really make a difference to him, it was just annoying.

"You know that he's right Greg. I want you to talk to Gabi and I want her to know that this is not her responsibility," she explained. Cuddy sighed and dropped her arms. "Maybe this is for the best. She can back down so that you have to grow up for once," she said before turning and leaving.

House watched her as she hurried out to the door and left. "Great," he sighed, rolling his eyes. "She's feeling all protective again," he commented right before he stood up and started for the door.

"You know that she's right," Wilson called over to him.

House just closed the door, giving Wilson his response.

**A short chapter, but I can assure you, this one is actually very important. You'll see why later on. Hope you liked it though. Let me know what you think. **


	27. Hard to Handle

Silent 26: Hard to Handle

Gabrielle walked downstairs as Andy closed the door behind him. She smiled down to him, knowing that he must have done something for her. "My daddy called me," she announced as she got to the bottom of the stairs.

Andy put his coat away and smiled to her. "Really?" he questioned. "So are you two better now?"

"Yeah. I think you already knew that Cuddy would have made him do something though," she responded.

Andy questionably looked to her. "So, you really feel better? Even though you know that he didn't quite come to this conclusion on his own?" he implored. He thought that if she had found out, that she would be more upset.

Gabrielle shrugged. "I probably shouldn't, but I know that if he really thought that he was right and she was wrong, that he wouldn't have done it," she explained.

Andy put his arm around Gabrielle and started walking her to the couch. "So are things good enough to go back to being mad at me?" he questioned.

Gabrielle slightly laughed as they sat down together. "Like I said a while ago, I'm not going to get mad yet. Besides, you're still here," she informed him. Her smile faded though.

"You decided that you would get upset now?" he asked.

Gabrielle furrowed her brow in confusion as she looked up to Andy. "Maybe I'm making more out of this than I should, but, daddy said something that has me wondering," she explained.

"Well, what did he say?" Andy questioned, starting to get concerned.

"He told me that I could bring back the pills when ever," she informed him.

Andy watched her for a moment, trying to figure out what was so wrong with that statement.

Gabrielle sighed. "He didn't give me pills. This was stuff that I had to get through a syringe," she explained. "Daddy usually doesn't have mix ups like that."

Andy didn't really see the big deal, but he could see that she was getting worried. "Well, maybe he was reading something at the same time or thinking about something else. I'm sure he knows what he gave you," he said.

Gabrielle sighed and sat back. "Yeah. Maybe," she absently responded, trying to convince herself that he was right.

ooo

Elisabeth was feeling a little better, but she knew that there was no way that it could last much longer. That was why she had to talk to Donnie.

With being out of school for over a week, she knew that he would have some questions, and she wanted to be the one to tell him. So far, Jessica had been telling him that Elisabeth was just sick. That was it though.

Sitting up in her room, Rachel was fixing her hair for her. "You sure that you want to do this?" Rachel questioned.

Elisabeth gently nodded, making sure not to mess up what Rachel was doing.

Jessica sat on the bed behind the two and simply watched. Right now, more than ever, she admired Elisabeth. Through out this whole time, she had been the one to hold it together better than anyone else. She had been the one to keep smiling, to go on most days as if there was nothing wrong. Now, she was going on what would be her final date to tell Donnie that she was dying.

"Are you two just talking down in the living room?" Jessica inquired. "Because I'm sure if you wanted, you could bring him up here and talk to him. It's not like you two could actually do anything," she explained.

Elisabeth shrugged. It didn't matter to her where she was, just as long as she got to talk to him, so to speak.

"Done," Rachel announced, stepping back from her.

Elisabeth smiled as she turned back and thanked her.

ooo

Wilson walked into his office, perplexed. He carried the file in his hand and set it down on his desk.

He just had to go change one major thing. Looking up, he saw the patient watching him in anticipation. "Congratulations, you don't have cancer," Wilson said.

The man sat back and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you!" he exclaimed, grabbing Wilson's hand to shake. "Thank you very much!"

"Well, I didn't actually do anything. It was your body that decided the cells weren't cancerous," he replied.

As soon as the man was gone, WIlson headed over to House's office, but saw that he wasn't there. Foreman was found in the conference room, so he decided that he should talk to him. It might be better that way anyways, since Foreman could be a little more honest.

"Foreman?" he asked, carrying the file over to him.

Foreman looked up from a chart that he was going over and quickly eyed the folder. "Wilson?" he questioned, wondering what he could be doing here.

WIlson stopped at the head of the table and tossed the folder down onto the table. "DId you by any chance screen your last patient for cancer?" he steadily implored. There were times where the patient's results got mixed up with other's or a test could give a false positive, but, he wanted to be sure. For some reason, he was starting to sense that House was just shoving a patient off onto him. Like he had just given up on him.

Foreman nodded. "Yes," he answered. "Why?"

Wilson sighed as he leaned onto the table. "Did it by any chance come up negative?" he wearily inquired.

"Yes. Why?" Foreman asked, starting to grow concerned with the whole situation.

Wilson slid the file across the table to him. "Then this patient, the one that House had told me has cancer, really belongs to you. I ran a second and third test and found nothing," he explained.

Foreman looked down at the file and then quickly back up to Wilson. "He handed this guy to you?" he asked, starting to get angry.

"Yeah," Wilson responded.

"He told us that he had just decided to switch doctors. That he wanted to change to a hospital closer to where his family was," Foreman explained.

Wilson looked to him with interest. "Where's he at now?"

Foreman shrugged. "I think he said something about leaving early. I don't know. We didn't have much that we had to get done today," he explained. "We had no patient so the other's went to volunteer in the clinic while I decided to work on a study being run on a new Alzhiemer's drug."

Wilson just nodded and headed back to his office, wondering what was really going on now.

ooo

Elisabeth sat down on the couch with Donnie. He was excited to see her, but she lacked the excitement.

"When are you coming back?" Donnie implored. The first question that came out of his mouth.

Elisabeth gently smiled to him. She could see how happy he was right now. It was nice to see for a change. That was what made it so hard for her to be the one to wipe it away.

She went and grabbed her paper and pen off the coffee table and wrote down one word. Never. She folded it and then grabbed his hand as she gave him the note.

Cautiously, Donnie took the note and started to unfold it. The look on her face let him know right away that he wasn't going to like the answer that he was getting. As soon as he unfolded the paper completely, he took his eyes off of her and down to the answer.

Disbelieving what he first saw, he stared at it for a moment, hoping that maybe he was wrong. He wasn't though, the same word was still there. "Really?" he asked, looking up to her.

Elisabeth nodded. She held up her finger, telling him to wait a moment as she pulled a letter out of her pocket. She kept her eyes glued to the paper that had been folded into a small square as she handed it to him. Looking up to his face just reminded her of what exactly she was doing, and right now she couldn't handle it.

Donnie took the paper and unfolded it, and started to read the letter that she had prepared for him last night.

_Donnie, _

_The best way for me to do this, is to be right out with it. I'm dying. Yes, I'm dying. I have this stupid lung disease that I was born with. That's why I can't run, and why I don't do sports and why I get out of breath so easily. _

_Right now, the doctor's don't see me living too much longer, so I'm just quitting school. There's no need for an education when you're not even going to make it to high school right? _

_Anyways, I just wanted to tell you. I thought you should know the truth rather than the rumors that you will most likely start hearing. I told Jessica not to tell anyone, specifically so that she can listen for the rumors and tell me what they think. I find all that sort of stuff interesting. The human mind can be very creative when we don't know the truth. _

Donnie looked up to her and set the letter down on the couch in front of him. "There's no medicine or anything you could take?" he questioned.

Elisabeth just shook her head. There were a lot of times that she had wondered about that herself. They had something to help fight off cancer, they had immunizations against small pox and measles, but they had nothing to help her breathe. It seemed unfair to her that just about anyone else that she would see with an illness could get treated, and she couldn't.

"Is there anything you wanted me to do?" Donnie offered. Right now, he was starting to feel uncomfortable with this whole situation. He wanted to just get up and leave, but he knew that he couldn't.

Elisabeth softly smiled and shook her head. There was nothing that he could actually do for her. He had already given her something that no one else had, and that to her, was more than enough. He was her friend, he liked her for who she was, and he didn't pity her every step of the way. She leaned forward and planted a small kiss on his cheek.

Donnie offered her a small smile. "I guess I'd better get going," he stated right before he got up off the couch. "See you later?" he requested.

Elisabeth sadly looked up to him and shook her head. She wanted this to be the last time, there was no way that she could handle him seeing her get sicker and sicker after a while.

"I see," Donnie responded. He went over and hugged her. "Bye," he said and then pulled away and headed for the door. As he opened the door to leave, he saw her waving to him and returned the wave before he walked out and closed the door behind him.

ooo

Gabrielle stepped out of the elevator, her hand gripping onto her purse strap as she made her way down the hall. Many times before, she had made this walk down this hall, but never before had it felt so long.

As she approached House's office, she spotted him leaving and hurried over to him. "Daddy?" she called out, trying to get his attention.

"Hey look, it's our sensitive little angel. You got the drugs with you?" he quipped.

Gabrielle stood there, looking to him, desperately hoping that every fear that she had since the phone call were all wrong. "I need to talk to you," she steadily informed him.

House studied her expression for a moment. "Okay," he nodded, seeing how nervous she was.

Gabrielle nodded and lead him back into his office. House sat down in the chair closest to the door as Gabrielle went and stood by his desk, trying to keep her composure. "Daddy?" she softly asked.

"Yes?" he responded, starting to get annoyed with the fact that she wasn't just getting straight to the point.

Gabrielle looked over to him and sighed. "What did you give me the last time that I was here?" she flatly implored, her eyes carefully watching him.

House watched her for a moment. "Sedatives and a note," he answered, attempting to figure out where this was all going.

"Okay," Gabrielle breathed out, hoping that he answered the next question correctly . "What form of sedatives? Pills? Shots?"

House thought for a moment. "Pills," he muttered, expressionlessly starting down towards the floor before him.

Chills went down Gabrielle's back as soon as she realized that he truly did not know. "Daddy?" she asked, getting scared.

House looked up to her. "I said pills," he clarified.

"You really don't know do you?" she whispered, holding back the tears. Every fear that she had, was all just now begin confirmed.

"Pills," House stated, getting irritated with this.

Gabrielle pulled the bag out of her purse. "No daddy! You handed me a syringe with liquid. There is no pill in this bag," she explained.

House just sat back and sighed. There was nothing that he could say to that.

"What about your last patient? Wilson told me that he thinks you just handed him off to him. Is that true?" she cried.

House stood up and looked to her. She knew already, so there was no point in hiding it. "FIne! I did! You happy now?" he angrily responded.

"Why?" she yelled back to him.

"Because! I saw positive while everyone else was saying negative! I remember teasing the patient for things that no one else does! I don't trust myself anymore!" he explained.

Gabrielle looked down and nodded. "I see," she said and then looked back up him. "Are you taking anything that I should know about?"

"No," he answered.

Gabrielle crossed her arms and looked off to the side. "Okay," she replied. All she wanted to do was figure out what to do now, but her mind kept drawing blanks. "Stay here," she instructed, finally getting an idea of what she should do. "I'm going to go get Wilson," she informed him as she started to leave the room.


	28. I'll Be Gone part 1

Chapter 27: I'll Be Gone (part 1)

Gabrielle sat in Wilson's office, she sat on the couch with a tissue in her hand, trying to keep herself from freaking out over her newest discovery. "He cracked," she stated, her voice shaky. "The one time that he is truly being counted on, and he cracks."

Wilson let out a heavy sigh. "Maybe it's not as bad as you're thinking," he suggested, only in attempt to calm her down and stall until he figured out something more productive.

Wilson looked through the glass door and saw House just sitting at his desk. "Maybe he just needs a break from everything," Wilson offered.

Gabrielle nodded. "You think you can take him somewhere or something just for a few days?" she requested.

Right now, Gabrielle felt that she was too worried about everything to be able to take him somewhere. She was shook up from the thought of her dad losing his mind, and then she knew that if he didn't get better, that she would have to be the one to tell Cuddy if she hadn't noticed anything yet.

Wilson really didn't want to be House's keeper right now, but he knew that it was important to House's family. "All right," he answered. He himself was irritated at House for not saying anything to him about any of this. All of this, at least he felt, could have been avoided.

House was the man who kept everything to himself until he blew up somehow, but even when he would blow up, it would be in private. He would take everything out on himself. That process usually wasn't something that was too bad, he would go through it and get it over with, but now, the process wasn't working. Instead of just taking it out, he was slowly letting the guilt and fear eat away at him and destroy him.

Wilson stood up and walked around to the other side of his desk. "Just let me go get some blood samples from him first. I wanna make sure that he isn't taking any other drugs that he might have found," he said before leaving the office.

Gabrielle just sat there and watched as he left. She wanted to get up and follow him, but it was best if she stayed there and gathered her composure before she left. She knew that when she left, she might see Cuddy, and the last thing that she wanted to do was get her upset over something that might be nothing right now.

ooo

Elisabeth and Jessica sat on the swing set in the park. It wasn't a far walk from the house and Elisabeth was feeling better. She wanted to get out of the house. After being there for so long, she was starting to feel almost trapped in there.

Elisabeth looked over and clapped to get Jessica's attention.

"Yeah?" Jessica responded, looking over to her.

Elisabeth asked her if she noticed that Gerald and Rachel were starting to sneak around a little more. Elisabeth knew that she shouldn't be amused with the idea that Rachel was starting to sneak out of the house, but it gave her the reassurance that no matter what, life went on for everyone else. Rachel didn't stop being Rachel because of her.

"Really?" Jessica asked, a little concerned.

Elisabeth nodded and then admitted that she had no idea what it was for though. That was the part that worried her. Looking up to her, she asked if she wanted to help her go through her room later.

"I guess," Jessica replied, uneasy with the whole thing. She hated to go through other people's things, but this was different. "I know that tonight she is meeting up with her friends, so we should be able to get in there then," she explained.

Elisabeth nodded, agreeing with her.

"Tommy's been quiet lately. You think he has anything to hide?" Jessica questioned.

Elisabeth had noticed the difference in Tommy's behavior and was starting to wonder the same thing. The only reason why she wasn't worried though was because she knew that he wasn't trying to hurt himself. She knew that he could be self destructive if he really wanted to be.

Elisabeth shrugged over to Jessica and asked if she wanted to go through his room too.

"Daddy already went through his room, remember?" she reminded her.

Elisabeth looked down to the ground. Yes, she had remembered, but she also noticed that House hadn't been himself lately either. No one really had, and it was scaring her. She was getting better, and they were still getting worse. It made no sense to her. She thought that maybe showing them that she could get out and walk somewhere that it would ease their minds. Of course though, Cuddy put up a fight when she asked to leave, so she might just be at home worrying.

Elisabeth stood up and looked over to Jessica, urging her to follow her. Jessica saw the look and obliged. "Okay," she said.

The two started walking to the sidewalk. "Do you think something is wrong with daddy?" Jessica asked, getting more and more concern about everything that was going on around her.

Elisabeth could sense the fear and nervousness from her, and even though it wouldn't help for long, she decided to lie. She shook her head and continued walking.

ooo

Cuddy sat on the couch, attempting to read a book. Just something to distract her for a moment.

Rachel carefully walked down the first couple of steps and peeked over at her mother. Once that she saw that she wasn't that busy, she took a deep breath and continued down the stairs.

"Mom?" Rachel gently called over to her as she approached the couch.

Cuddy looked up from her book. "Yes?" she responded.

Rachel walked up and leaned on the back of the couch. "How did you know that you loved daddy?" she implored.

Cuddy smiled as she set her book down on the table beside her. "You're not thinking about Gerald are you? Because honey, you're only twelve yet, and I don't what you tying yourself to any boys yet," she explained.

Rachel shook her head. "I just wonder sometimes. I mean, like now, he's late from work. He's been spending less time here, he bails out on the worst times. You put up with a lot from him," she stated.

Cuddy sighed. "Come here," she instructed, patting the cushion before her.

Rachel obliged and walked around to the other side of the couch where she sat down. She looked up to Cuddy's eyes, wondering what was truly going on between the two anymore.

"Greg does a lot of things for people that go unnoticed. He likes to keep his favors a secret. And there are a lot of things that he has done for me. He knows when I need cheering up, he knows when he has gone over board with things, and when to try and make things up to me. We know each other, and we put up with each other's flaws. The bottom line is, we need each other," Cuddy explained.

Rachel nodded. "So you really think that he's going to come back after all of this?" she implored.

Cuddy nodded without hesitation. "Yes, I do. I know because he always comes back. He always needs me, and he knows that I need him and doesn't want to hurt me that bad," she informed her.

Cuddy did truly believe that. He had promised her that he would come back, and she trusted him enough to believe that he would return.

Rachel looked down to her hands. "I hope you're right," she said and then stood up and left.

Cuddy sat there and watched her for a second. "Is that what's really bothering you?" she asked.

Rachel stopped and turned around to her. She was about to say something, but quickly decided against it. "Yes," she lied and then continued on her way up to her room.

Cuddy's shoulder's slumped as she heavily sighed in despair.

ooo

Jessica stopped at the corner of the street as she waited for Elisabeth to catch her breath. "Am I going to fast for you?" she inquired, even though she thought that she had been going pretty slow.

Elisabeth, who was still heavily breathing, looked up to her and shook her head. She tried her hardest to control her breathing as she started walking. She told Jessica that she was fine when she got up beside her.

"If you say so," Jessica replied, not too sure of what to do at this point. They were only a minute away from home though, so she didn't really worry about it that much. All they had to do was pass six houses and they were home.

The two crossed the street together, with Jessica closely watching her sister. Once they got onto the sidewalk, she looked back forward. "You know, it's weird. This is the first time that I have been looking out for you. It seems like most of the time you were looking out for me," she said and then looked beside her.

"Ellie?" she called out, looking behind her, spotting her sister still back at the corner. She could her starting to sway. "Ellie!" she called again as she started running to her. It was too late though, she saw Elisabeth's eyes roll to the back of her head and then her body hit the ground.

Jessica stood there, starting to panic. It took her a second, but she was finally able to figure out what she should do. Without any further hesitation, she turned and sprinted towards home to get Cuddy.

ooo

Wilson sat at his desk, waiting. As soon as he heard a knock at the door, he perked his head up and looked towards the door with anticipation.

"Come in!" he called out to them.

A nurse walked in and set a file down on his desk in front of him. There were no words exchanged between the two.

Wilson waited until she had left and then opened the file and pulled out the one paper that he had been looking for. "All right House," he mumbled, scanning over the results.

Sighing, he left his arm fall, tearing the paper away from his sight and setting it down on the desk. His eyes blankly stared forward. He took his other hand and ran it through his hair, trying to think of the best thing to do now.

ooo

House sat at his desk, waiting for Wilson to come back and talk to him. Hopefully, he had something good to tell him.

"Hello?"

House looked up to the doorway and saw Morgan, smirking to him. "Go away," he gruffly ordered.

"Why? I think you like me here," she argued.

House sighed as he got up and grabbed his cane. "Fine, I'll leave," he said as he limped past her and out the door.

Morgan was about to turn and leave herself, but she spotted his cellphone on the floor. "Well look here," she mentioned to herself as she walked over and picked up the item. "Looks like someone dropped something important," she said, examine the phone.


End file.
